What difference can $5,000 make anyway?

Let's pretend you play the lottery now and again. Let's pretend you played last night on your way home when you stopped at the gas station.

Let's pretend you completely forgot about the ticket until two minutes ago. You reached into your wallet to pay for your Starbucks triple grande mocha latte upside down with extra caramel and whipped cream. You pull out the ticket and decide to check the numbers on your phone.

The first number matches! You feel the excitement in your stomach. The second number is a match!! The excitement builds and you feel as though you already drank your souped-up drink. Then, it's a blur. Match, match, match!!!! You just won $5,000.

What are you going to spend it on? Disneyland passes for the whole family? Summer vacation in Cancun? New iPad for your daughter? Those cute Jimmy Choo shoes or Louis Vuitton belt?

Sometimes life can seem like winning the lottery--even for an injured worker.

Mary woke up to another average, hot day. She made her way to the mailbox feeling the heat burn her rugged skin. Just getting to the mailbox was painful. The tendinitis in her wrist shot a sharp pain as she pulled open the mailbox. She had been avoiding picking up the mail for days since all she ever got was bills. Life was feeling pretty hopeless. She fell so far in the hole she didn't know how she would get out. She felt like a bad mother, her confidence was shot, and she didn't feel like she was contributing to society.

She grabbed the mail, made her way back to her in-laws’ cramped apartment, put the mail down on the coffee table, and reached for the remote so she could lose herself in the characters of her favorite soap opera where there is always a happy ending. Just as she put her head back and thought about the stack of bills she had to open, one of the envelopes caught her eye. It had a watermark and it looked like a check. "Probably another scam," she thought...but she opened it anyway.

Mary dropped the remote, went lightheaded, had to sit down, and literally lost her breath for a moment. There, in her hand, was a valid check for $5,000. Her attorney had mentioned she might be receiving this, but she thought it was a big “maybe.” Feeling that good things don’t happen for her anymore, she had turned the “maybe” into a “no.”

The back door screen banged closed and brought her back to her senses. Her youngest daughter, Patty, walked in the house from school. Mary looked at her with a huge grin and said, "An angel just gave us a fresh start."

The first stop was JC Penney. New underwear, socks, and shoes for everyone. Then they headed over to their old apartment building and put the first and last month’s deposit on their own apartment. They put enough in the bank to cover the next two months' expenses.

With a new sense of hope, Mary showed up for her first day of school in real estate. Six weeks later, she graduated and got her real estate license and certificate. A local real estate office took her under their wing, and in just 60 days, she had her first commission check. She felt the same feeling as when she opened that $5,000 check from the state of California. She felt liberated, she felt hope, she felt alive again.

$5,000 could be five minutes in Vegas, an extravagant dinner, or a new diamond ring. $5,000 could be luxury items for a working family, Disneyland passes, iPads, or a vacation. To an injured worker, $5,000 could be a fresh start. Hope. Maybe even the difference between life and death.

Now I ask you: What difference can $5,000 make anyway?