Alfonso Leon from Mexico One year ago, I was working with my father in Mexico on a farm near Guamuchil City. My father is an agricultural engineer, and every year he usually grows corn and beans. On this afternoon, my father told me that he could not give me money to go to summer school because it was too expensive. Each unit cost $300. My country was going through a crisis, and it was difficult to get enough money from any job in Mexico. That night, my father went to a meeting with his friends in their agricultural club. They talked about their money problems. They decided to do a private lotto among themselves. Everyone took five tickets to sell to other friends. Each one cost about five dollars. Then my father picked up his five tickets and decided not to sell them. Instead, he kept all the tickets because he hates selling anything. Two weeks passed, and I was very nervous because the summer school was about to begin. One morning, we were working on the same farm. We were driving the tractor when my father broke the news that he could definitely not afford to pay for my summer school. I was very sad because I needed to take these courses to be able to graduate in a couple of months. Two hours later, at lunch time, my father told me that I should check the newspaper for the winning numbers in the private lotto. When I opened the newspaper, I looked at the first page, and I saw a surprise. I started to laugh because my father had won the big prize of one thousand dollars! From this moment, my life took a big change because my father gave me part of the money for summer school. I was very happy because I made the summer school deadline and enrolled for two credits. Now I could graduate as civil engineer on time with the rest of my friends. I learned that I should never lose faith when problems look impossible to solve. It has taught me to be a better person and to never give up.
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