After lunch at Ivy Noodle today, David Mogilner ’12 cracked open his fortune cookie and unfurled the paper: “If it seems fates are against you today, they probably are.”

Deeming it a “crappy fortune,” Mogilner then sent this piece of news to several panlists, signing the e-mail in a joking manner with the acronym “FML”.

And then, as fate would have it, lightening struck.

About 45 minutes following his Ivy Noodle Meal, Mogilner left his home on Lynwood Place to head to class. He was texting a friend as he walked down Edgewood Avenue toward Park Street, but, out of the corner of his eye, he saw what he described as a blinding “flash of white” across the street. It was followed by a spark.

His thought process? Oh my God that was lightning. I nearly died.

A moment’s pause, then: Oh s–t, thunder is coming.

Almost simultaneously, the thunder came. Noticed by Yalies throughout campus due to its strength, the loud clap sent Mogilner into a crouch.

After it was finished, he brought a friend from nearby Pierson College to investigate the site of lightning impact. He said they could smell burning but there were no visual signs of where it had struck minutes before.

Regardless, the next logical step was to compose a follow-up to the fortune-cookie e-mail he’d sent earlier that afternoon.

“Dear All, I was nearly struck by lightning on Edgewood today,” Mogilner wrote. “I’m fine, although my ears hurt a little.”

But Mogilner’s day didn’t end there. Popping open a bottle of Honest Tea in the Thain Family Café about an hour and a half later, he flipped over the cap to read the message: “Stop living life for what’s around the corner and start enjoying the walk down the street.”

At that, all he could do was laugh.