Twenty-nine coworkers in New York did what office culture is supposed to do at its best: a bunch of regular people pooling a few bucks, sharing a little hope, and giving themselves a reason to laugh together on a random Tuesday.

And this time, it actually paid off.

Most people make promises the way they make New Year’s resolutions.

With enthusiasm. With sincerity. And with absolutely no expectation of being tested.

Years ago in North Carolina, a brother and sister made a different kind of promise.

If one of them ever hit it big in the lottery, they’d split it.

Simple. Clean. No lawyers. No fine print. Just a pact.

Someone in Arkansas claimed a $1.8 billion Powerball jackpot—quietly, carefully, and with more restraint than most of us show ordering coffee.

PIKESVILLE, Md. — Most people treat the lottery like a tiny, weekly subscription to hope. Twenty bucks here, a quick “what if” there, and then life continues exactly as it was.

Karen L. from Rosedale did the same thing—only her “what if” showed up to work.

One lucky lottery player in Arkansas woke up on Christmas morning with bragging rights to winning the second-largest lottery jackpot in world history worth a tearjerking $1.8168 billion.

Sometimes in life, you follow a sign that says “luckiest store in Michigan,” and instead of getting a clever marketing gimmick, you end up walking out with a ticket worth a million dollars. This is exactly what happened to one Michigan man who, in a moment of casual optimism, stepped into a liquor store and stepped out with a financial plot twist.

Imagine popping out on your lunch break to do something totally ordinary—grab a ticket, grab a snack, maybe complain about work in your head—and walking straight into a plot twist featuring your grandma and a million dollars.

That’s basically what happened in Rochelle, Illinois.