Why I Clap Articles 17 times

Laura Papavero
2 min readAug 7, 2021

When I clap someone’s story I usually click it 17 times (could happen 18 or 19, but basically it’s 17).

Why do I do this?

17 is my lucky number. So clapping 17 times is a kind of “I wish you good luck!”.

At school, I was often the number 17 in the register log. I also thought to be unlucky on Friday, the 17th. Actually, I used to think I was unlucky.

When I notice that a Friday 17th is coming soon, I do not feel unlucky anymore. I do feel it may be a good day. On the other hand, it could be an important day as well, even if negative.

Well, growing up I noticed that both happy and painful events of my life happened around days 17th, 18th and 19th.

  • Indeed, I took my BA on 18th December 2012. I decided myself the date of my MA, but I realized only some days later later that it was another 18th: I got my MA on 18th September 2020.
  • My grandfather passed away on 18th February 2016.
  • I received the confirmation I was going to start working for my current company on 19th March 2021.
  • I met my boyfriend after the very first Italian lockdown on May, 19th 2020.
  • It may happen that something positive happens on 17th, even though it is just a small thing: I do believe it’s the Universe wishing me good luck for my future, as to be encouraged to keep going my path. Usually I realize the day after or during the following days, that that thing happened on 17th or 18th.

This is why I clap stories on Medium 17 times.

Good luck.

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Laura Papavero

Linguist, yogi, lived in Austria and France, Italian, a little bit nerd, multilingual (ITA, EN, DE, FR), love eating, reading.