Every so often, a person comes along who can only be described as an enigma because everything always just seems to work out for him or her.

They are easy to spot. In high school he was the quarterback of the football team or she was the captain of the cheerleaders.

Or maybe it was the stud wrestler or the big hitter on the volleyball team.

These people always look good, the teachers all love them, and you never hear an embarrassing story about them.

And then there are the rest of us. The Bill Buckners of the world, if you will.

Unfortunately, we too are easy to spot. We weren’t afraid to be in band or choir or even something called “Math Counts” in high school. I’m not really sure what a Glee Club is, but it just sounds like something we would have been in.

Or maybe we were on the football or volleyball team, but we didn’t play much. And if we ever got in, we probably screwed up.

You can still spot us at Iowa State. We’re the ones who the Cy Rides don’t stop or even slow down for.

She’s the one you saw trip on the sidewalk this morning, and he’s the one sitting next to you with his zipper down. And for some reason, we are always getting our cars towed.

And I guarantee there are plenty of embarrassing stories floating around about us.

For instance, one time I ran out of gas in a car wash. Don’t ask. Another time I went to “Shakespeare in Love” with a guy because I couldn’t find a date. Horrifying.

And I’m also the guy who paid an entire parking ticket in nickels and dimes. Not very smart.

Granted, all these incidents could have been avoided with a little common sense and planning, but sometimes these stories can only be blamed on bad luck. These rare incidents are the worst because they could have happened to anyone, but for some reason, they happened to us.

On June 5, 1999, one such story occurred. It happened during a baseball game in Lake Mills. Lake Mills was facing Saint Ansgar in the championship game of the Lake Mills Summer Tournament.

It was the bottom of the first, and Lake Mills was up to bat. The pitcher for Saint Ansgar was throwing some smoke and already had two outs under his belt.

And then it happened.

The three, four, five and six hitters for Lake Mills proceeded to hit back to back to back to back homeruns. According to the Iowa High School Athletic Association, this has never happened before in the history of high school baseball in Iowa.

Did I mention that they all came off the same pitcher?

It doesn’t take a genius to spot the dill in this story. I won’t mention the pitcher’s name because that is just cruel.

But I guarantee that people are still talking about it. That’s the kind of story that will resurface at his 30 year high school reunion.

Now it would be very easy for the Saint Ansgar pitcher to let this get to him. Let’s face it, most people, me included, would have walked off the field right then and never picked up a baseball again. This is a traumatizing event.

But if he was smart, he would use this incident to his advantage. This was a history making event. He is going to go down in Iowa baseball history as the only pitcher to give up back to back to back to back homeruns.

That’s the kind of fact that could end up on Trivial Pursuit card. How many of us can say we are the subject of a Trivia question?

And what a story he has now. If he learned how to tell it right, he could be the life of the party everywhere he goes. Everyone loves the guy who laughs at himself. How do you think Howard Stern ever made it?

Life is filled with disappointments and embarrassing stories such as these. The way I see it, you have two ways of handling them. Number one: You can let them get to you, wallowing and complaining to everyone of how unlucky a person you are.

Number two: You can take them with a grain of salt, learn to laugh at yourself, and save your wallowing for the heartbreaks that really count.

One way will help you go through life with a smile on your face and the other will eventually cause you to be a bitter person. I’ll let you guess which is which.

There aren’t many people in this world that everything works out for because life isn’t like that. Everyone experiences adversity at some point, but it is the way you handle your adversity that determines the kind of person you are.

But either way, you’ll probably have a story worth telling.

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Jackson Lashier is a junior in English from Marshalltown.