The Best 20 Bucks I Ever Spent

On this day...

A cocktail out on the town costs ten dollars, if not more...

A flavored latte is yours for five dollars and forty cents, excluding tax...

And gasoline fills a Mini's tank for twenty-five bucks...

Eleven years ago, however, I spent twenty dollars that would - unknowingly at the time - change my life. I wholeheartedly believe that this is the best twenty dollars I have ever spent.

Keep reading to find out what that investment was...

I was well into my sophomore year of high school. At the time, I was a flutist in my school's symphonic band who was itching to learn how to play more woodwind instruments. In my fifteen year-old eyes, the next step was to learn how to play the clarinet.

I knew absolutely nothing about money. I was fifteen. What I knew at the time, though, was that a girl sitting in the back row of concert band had been nearing the end of her days playing in the clarinet section. Confident that she wouldn't be returning to class the following year, I approached her asking what she would be doing with her clarinet at the end of the school year...

"I don't know, but I definitely won't be playing it. It honestly plays like crap. I think I'm gonna throw it away."

My heart sunk.

Throw away an instrument?

Who even does that?