I’m sitting and waiting for my carpool – a foreign concept if you would’ve asked me half a year ago. Here I am, in a place that would have never entered my mind until a few months ago, yet is now what my life revolves around. All because of a few words.

Towards the end of the summer, a close friend whom I went to Bnos Menachem with in NY announced that she was switching to Ohel Chana, in Los Angeles. I wished her an amazing time there, told her I would miss her very much, and expressed hopes for keeping in touch. She mentioned that she found a family to board at and they have an extra spot, if I was interested. I thanked her, but told her I liked it at Bnos Menachem, thank G-d, and would go back, although I would miss her greatly.

I thought the matter was over, but the Shabbos before I was to fly back to Crown Heights my mind just couldn’t rest. I eventually came to the inevitable conclusion that it made absolutely no sense for me to go to school all the way in New York when I had an opportunity to go to go to a school in Los Angeles where I could come home, to San Diego, every Shabbos.

My parents were extremely supportive and the guests we had over for Shabbos suggested that I not fly back to Crown Heights until checking out Ohel Chana, because my flight was that Tuesday. My devoted mother turned wool to thread as she called my friend’s mother and spoke to her for a really long time, scheduled an interview with Ohel Chana’s principle, and made arrangements regarding the house where I would stay.

I packed some things and early Monday morning she drove me to LA for the interview. A few hours later I was officially accepted to Ohel Chana and my mother took me to Target to get some school supplies and then she took me to my new class’s orientation. Following that, my mother drove me to the house I was to stay at and after checking it out she bid me farewell, but just until Shabbos.

This switch was something I had never even imagined, and it happened in the blink of an eye. This comes to teach us that Hashem makes everything happen for a purpose and it was He who made me realize I should switch schools and caused me to only decide to do so after spending a year in Bnos Menachem. It was He who didn’t let my mind rest and it was He who made us have guests of action that Shabbos. I was meant to be in both places.

This experience was also a valuable lesson to me that if you act, you can make things happen. It would’ve been so easy for me to just stay in Bnos Menachem. My things are mostly all in Crown Heights because I didn’t dream of not returning, and my tickets there and back for Yom Tov were already made. But my mother acted and turned my thoughts and feelings into a reality.

Thank you Mommy!