July 17th, 2008
SAN DIEGO, Calif.
Hailey Paquette
UCSD Graduate Student Flannery O’Connor won the California Super Lottery last Friday after her brother bought her a ticket at a 7-Eleven in Del Mar.
The ticket was worth $75 million. The money that O’Connor won in the lottery was paid up front in a lump sum. She said that taxes deducted about $50,000. The first thing she did with the money that was take her friends out to the Pink Elephant club in North Park.
Even though her brother purchased the ticket, O’Connor said that she chose the numbers, which have a special significance to her. Three and seven are her favorite numbers, 17 is her mother’s birthday, 25 is her dad’s birthday, and 57 is her mother’s age, “Though she probably wouldn’t want me telling you that,” she said with a laugh.
O’Connor plans to return to her hometown of Bloomington, Ind., and buying a new house. With the remaining money, she wants to start a rock & roll camp for girls. O’Connor spent most of her college years in several different bands playing the keyboard. Her current band is named Belligerent Sunshine.She plans to be the director of the camp, which is not the first of its kind. Other rock & roll camps for girls have been established in Portland, Oreg; Sweden; France, and Brazil.
O'Connor never expected to win the lottery. “I don’t even gamble. Me winning the lottery is a total fluke.” She gives credit to her brother, who buys a lottery ticket every time he stops at a gas station.
O’Connor said that she hasn’t spent very much of the money yet. Besides taking her friends out, she has had her car tuned up and taken her mom out to dinner.
The best part about winning the lottery, she said, is “Getting to use the money to see the change I want to see in the world.”
Below is a picture of the winning lottery ticket.
