The night before the most important exam of my nursing degree, I thought I had everything under control—notes reviewed, alarm set, and a plan to arrive early. What I didn’t plan for was sabotage. My mother-in-law, Lydia, had been staying with us for weeks and made no secret of her disapproval of my career goals. That morning, I opened my eyes to sunlight streaming in and realized in horror that it was already 9:30—the exact time my exam began. Someone had changed my alarm. When I walked into the kitchen, Lydia was sipping coffee with a satisfied smile and casually said, “Now you know what really matters.”
Missing that exam nearly crushed me. Nursing school was expensive, demanding, and everything hinged on those finals. Thankfully, after hours of pleading with the academic office, I was granted a makeup test. But the stress she caused didn’t just threaten my grades—it nearly derailed years of work and sacrifices. For Lydia, though, it was all about “teaching me priorities,” as she put it. My husband, Roger, brushed it off as his mom “meaning well,” but I knew this went far beyond nagging. It was intentional, and it was cruel.
That’s when I decided if she wanted to play games, I’d show her what a real lesson looked like. On the night before her early morning flight, I quietly reset every clock in the house, including her phone. At midnight, her alarm rang, and she rushed to the airport in a panic, convinced she was late. Hours later, while she sat stranded in the terminal, angry messages began flooding my phone. I ignored them until the morning, then sweetly reminded her that surprises sometimes happen—just like the one she gave me before my exam.
From that day forward, something changed. Lydia never again questioned my studies, dismissed my goals, or called my degree “pointless.” I passed my exams with top marks, graduated with honors, and began working at the children’s hospital I had dreamed of. If she had truly wanted to teach me something, she succeeded—but not in the way she expected. I learned that standing up for myself isn’t disrespectful, and sometimes, karma just needs a little push.
