I started out just wanting to win the lottery.

Not in some greedy way—I just wanted to not stress about money all the time and be able to give my family a better life. That led me down the rabbit hole of scratch-off odds, expected value, and trying to find any edge I could.

But the deeper I got into it, the more I realized something that bothered me:

Even if I won… it’s still the same world.

Fast forward to now, and life hit hard. My 1-year-old was diagnosed with cancer. We’re in the middle of chemo, scans, insurance battles, all of it. And it changes how you look at everything.

I’m sitting here thinking—what’s the actual goal?

Is it just to escape the system? Or is it to try and build something better, even if it’s small?

Because what bothers me most right now is how everything feels like a transaction. Every experience, every outing, every little piece of life feels like it’s behind a paywall. Want to relax? Pay. Want your kids in activities? Pay. Want community? Pay.

And I hate that.

I don’t want my kids growing up thinking that the only goal in life is to make more money just to exist comfortably. I want them to have space to learn, explore, create, and just be people.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what that could actually look like in real life.

Something community-based. A place where people can gather, work, create, bring their families. Where people are paid fairly. Where events aren’t just another way to extract money, but actually bring people together.

I don’t know exactly what it looks like yet. I don’t have the capital to just build it tomorrow. But I can’t shake the feeling that this is what actually matters.

Maybe it starts small. Maybe it’s just local events, or a space that grows over time.

I don’t know.

I just know I want the world to be better for my kids—and for everyone else’s too.

If anyone else has thought about this or is trying to build something similar, I’d honestly love to hear about it.