The best thing that's ever happened to me would have to have been in third grade when I gave this kid one of my cookies.
Now you must understand, every school has that vital item that out-of-class activities would fail without, almost like a currency. From getting the nerd of the class to do your homework to skipping people in the lunch line, theres something that drives everyone, and it's usualy consistant through out the school. Both highschoolers and pre-k students bow down to the person with the most of whatever that item is. For some its cold hard cash, others use bottlecaps or pencils. My school used cookies.
I was top of the food chain. lunch ladies knew my as "the cookie guy," and that was an achievement in itself. I had stacks on stacks (of cookies) in my pocket. I forgot do do some homework? BAM. one stack gone, one assignment done. Giving someone something so valueable to another person was unheard of, but I could afford it.
So I give a cookie to this kid. He looks at it, then at me, then at the cookie again as if he doesn't really believe it's his. "Thanks." he finally says at long last, a layer of admiration altering his normally monotone voice. Without saying anything, I walked away.
That kid came to me the next day at recess. We talked, played, became friends. He taught me about PC gaming, taught me that there were worlds - hundreds of beautiful, magical universes, some fiction, some not, in that 15-inch box I'd never used for more that watching cartoons and doing math.
I've often looked back at that moment, contemplating whether that cookie was well-spent. There were concequences for learning of the worlds' existences, both good ones and bad ones. Sometimes there is no doubt in my mind that my life could have turned out better if I hadn't learned of them.
But right now, today, I couldn't be happier with that descision I made all those years ago. Sitting in front of the keyboard, writing, playing, learning, growing; that is my life, the only thing that's driven me for the past twelve years.
I've become a nicer, smarter, generaly better person after years of having the knowledge I do, and it's all because of a cookie in the right hand.