The number 43 brings student hope in tough times

By: Sophia Shah

Posted: 4/3/08

When I was about 12 years old, I developed an instinctive nature to glance at the clock at 10:43 and wake up without an alarm at 6:43 a.m.

I overlooked the number at first, claiming it was a coincidence. However, when I purchased an item and received 43 cents in change or my tax cost me an additional 43 cents, I stopped complaining about the sound of loose change in my pocket and the outrageous tax rate of 8.25 percent.

When I drove impatiently to work and the car in front of me displayed a 43 in the license plate, I was captivated. Suddenly, it was as if being late to work wasn't something to stress about. This number was trailing me like a shadow, reminding me that panicking wouldn't solve anything.

Most people rarely experience a moment when they feel they are free from skepticism. However, I am fortunate enough to have encountered something liberating, but the actual misfortune is that most people seldom face this sort of elevation. What lifted me was an effortless impulse to believe, a little imagination and the huge effect of the number 43.

When people first hear this legend, their initial reaction is a mocking smirk. People have tried to convince me that it's an illusion my head concocted or a mind game. At one point, I believed it was the spirits at work or the effort of angels.

I immediately shun scientific theories based on the frequency of numbers. If they are true, I want a dependable explanation for the elation I experience when a 43 surprises me, how there are 69 members in the 43 Facebook group who see the number too, how my inbox is saturated with this mystical number or how the number 43 finds me in the most desperate moments. I felt like this number came to me in the only way hope could reach my stubborn head.

Not only does a 43 show up unexpectedly on receipts and clocks, but it is also a consistent reminder that things will be better.

Most people who know me are amused with the joy 43 brings me and how it can ease the concern of a bad grade or a cloudy day. The impact it has had on my friends digs a deeper significance into this number. They appreciate how this number brings a new breed of faith into my life and how it has completely strengthened my confidence.

My phone is flooded with pictures of the number that people have sent me, and my desk and walls are lavished with 43s people have stolen from locker numbers and fast food joints. I have two friends who tattooed the number on their bodies as a permanent reminder that if things aren't all right, then they will be soon.

With this inspiration, perhaps enlightening someone else will show how greatly I've been liberated.

Perhaps if you forfeit a minute to look up with optimism, you'll see a 43 too.

Sophia Shah is a Grapevine freshman majoring in business. She may be reached at sophias43@yahoo.com.