It’s funny how life works out sometimes. Take, for instance, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Good guy. Impeached one day, six-figure book deal the next.

But for you, me and the average, everyday person, we are not so lucky. Showing up to a study group and realizing you’ve outlined the wrong chapters. Walking into class and realizing it’s a snow day. In our daily lives, we run into many problems. They would be hilarious – except that they happened to us.

Take, for instance, that time last summer when I asked my boss at The Baltimore Sun why a recently laid-off coworker had not been in the newsroom for a few days. That was awkward. Or that time last May when I asked my friend when his birthday was – on his birthday. No joke. It wasn’t funny.

Sometimes, though, it’s more fun and a little less awkward to read about other people’s misfortunes. Anonymously. With virtually no chance of ever meeting them.

That’s where www.fmylife.com comes into play.

Maybe I’m a little bit late into this craze. I don’t know. Wouldn’t be the first time.

But here is what I do know: I have learned more in a few short days than in my almost three years of college. No, I’m not talking about extremely relevant topics such as the structure of the U.S. Congress. I’m talking about life skills, life lessons.

Take this post from March 3: “Today, I was walking down the street and I saw a 20 dollar bill on the floor. I thought it fell out of the pocket of the man in front of me so I decided to do the right thing and I asked him if he dropped it. He said yes and took it. I later realized the 20 dollars was mine. FML.” Lesson: The fewer questions you ask, the better. Especially true at the university.

But what’s the bigger lesson? For certain people, no bad deed goes punished. But for the rest of us, maybe it’s like the old saying, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

Just take the case of 58-year-old Jim Moffett. He got off his bus to help two elderly women cross a busy Denver street during a heavy snowstorm.

Moffett then pushed three people out of the path of an on-coming pickup before he was hit himself. He suffered “bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen,” according to an Associated Press news report.

He was also ticketed for jaywalking.

Sure, Moffett must have been happy to be alive. But you know exactly what he was thinking the next day.

Joel Cohen is a junior government and politics major. He can be reached at cohendbk@gmail.com.