๐จ Probability of winning the World Cup
๐ฒ๐ฆ Morocco ~ 1%
๐ช๐ธ Spain ~ 4.9%
๐ต๐น Portugal ~ 5%
๐ฉ๐ช Germany ~ 5%
๐ด๓ ง๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฟ England ~ 11%
๐ฒ๐ฝ Mexico ~ 13%
๐ซ๐ท France ~ 16%
๐ง๐ท Brazil ~ 18%
๐ฆ๐ท Argentina ~ 2โฆ. love
In my family, a dog was never a dream.
It was a list of rules.
โNo dogs on the couch.โ
โDonโt let it bark at night.โ
โWhoโs going to walk it?โ
My dad rarely asked.
He expected.
My mom rarely argued.
She simply handled whatever needed to be handled.
As a kid, I thought every family made decisions that way.
It wasnโt until years later, after I had my own apartment and a little more freedom, that I realized how unusual it was.
One Saturday, I was visiting my parents when my sister started talking about the rescue dog she had just adopted from a shelter outside townโฆ
After my younger sister got married before me, she stopped calling me โSisterโ and started calling me by my first name.
At our first family gathering after her wedding, I drove my own car. She arrived in her husbandโs. When I was about to speak, my mother interrupted me:
โLet the married woman speak first.โ
She meant my younger sister.
Then she added, โYouโre not the only one with a car anymore. Swallow your pride and ask your sister how she got a man.โ
I quietly left. That was the last time I visited the family house.
I left my backpack on a train during the evening rush.
By the time I realized, the doors had already closed.
Inside was my laptop, my passport, $300 in cash, and a small envelope holding the rent money.
I was already accepting that it was gone.
About an hour later, an unknown number called.
โI think this belongs to you,โ the voice said.
We met outside the station.
The backpack was exactly as Iโd packed it.
Laptop untouched.
Passport still inside.
Cashโฆ almost all there.
One $50 bill was missing.
My wife admitted something on her deathbed. Now I donโt know how to feel.
Iโm in angst. Thatโs the only way I know how to describe it. Everything just feels so surreal right now. My wife and I were together for 35 years. We married young and had our child around 10 years later. I still remember the day she had to be taken to the hospital. I was at work when her water broke, but instead of calling and demanding I get there as soon as possible, she told me it was best that I wait because everything was fine. I told her she was being unreasonable if she thought I wasnโt going to be there for the birth of our child, but she insisted I stay where I was. I chalked it up to the stress of the moment.
I finished out the day, and as soon as I clocked out, I rushed to the hospital. When I arrived, my wife was nowhere to be found. In the chaos of the busy hospital, my panic grew until my pager started beeping. It was my wifeโs number. I found the nearest phone and answered. She was already home, asking where I had been. After a brief exchange, I got in my car and drove home as quickly as I could.