The game was called Wild Card Lotto. I know it was one of the last big jackpots before the game was switched. I was 21 years old at the time and in college. Myself and some buddies were at a pitt-penn state football and afterwards we stopped at a Uni-Mart. I was so drunk at the time i bought a sub, a gatorade, and some cigarettes. I saw the ticker on the machine say jackpot of $32M so i decided to buy $3 of quick picks and two scratch offs. That night i missed the drawing but caught the picks in the paper and honestly felt a rush in my body that few will ever experience. So that night i called my dad from my dorm and told him i won. He did not believe me whatsoever. I finally convinced him after screaming at him for 15 minutes. So he came and picked me up with protection of his gun. We drove that night 4 1/2 hours to the lottery headquarters. That morning we verified the ticket and signed a bunch of documents. Believe it or not i did not take a lawyer or anything. I did however consult a financial advisor later that week. There was a formal press conference with about 20 people in the place that took about 30 minutes. I should really write a book about this because many people like reading about my story. I did ironically have a new 95 ford mustang at the time which my father co signed for it. I made no monthly payments for it. The bank just let me buy out the loan 2 months later when i received my first annuity check. Financially at the time, i only was about $8,000 in debt. $5,000 being from college loans and $3,000 from credit cards. I had a girlfriend at the time who was really cool about it. I was dating her for about 14 months when i won. All she really asked for was a new car and the insurance paid for. I did end up buying her a 1995 mitsubishi eclipse which was her dream car at the time. We did however have to move from the campus we were at to the main campus cause everyone was excited at first and fraternities and soroties wanted donations. It really wasn't as bad as you all would think. When we transferred to the main university we each had new cars and rented out a modest apartment. We went on 3 spring break trips and took a month long vacation to florida which is where we live now. We didn't really spend much while we were in school. Yes we did end up marrying each other. The money was not really an issue with us. We wanted the same things and got the same things. We have been married for 2 1/2 years and have a beautiful son who just turned 1 last month. We now live in Clearwater Florida where we have a nice house, 4 cars (2 new, 2 used), 4 jet skis for when family comes and visits, we have invested our money wisely with advice from our Financial Advisor. My wife just got her first "real" job teaching so im happy for her. I mostly watch Luke and have some real estate deals going on(low-risk deals). The 32M jackpot turned out to be $34M over 25 years. We still have 17 installments left and so far the lottery has been on time 8 for 8. I'm just happy we are fortunate enough to live how we live. Even if the installments stopped we would have enough to live on and our son to live on for the rest of our lives. That is basically the whole story. OH, and yes i still play the lottery, $3 quick picks and $2 scratch offs twice a week. Seeing if lighting strikes twice...
