After nights of scrolling through hotel and ticket apps, I decided to escape my boring routine and go to Banyuwangi. It was impulsive, because I didn’t have a plan yet—or maybe it wasn’t, since I’d been checking hotels for months. But I still didn’t have an itinerary. I was going anyway.

Everything went acoording to how I felt at the time. On the last day, I decided to eat seafood at a place that was pretty far from the train station I needed to get back to later. The distance was around 15 kilometers. By car, it should’ve only taken about 30 minutes.

But that was according to Google. On the way to the restaurant, I was stuck in traffic for an hour. It was caused by a line of container trucks trying to get into the port. This was a variable I hadn’t considered, simply because I didn’t know. Had I known about this before, I would’ve avoided this route. It was too risky, since it is the only road to the station.

So I had to come up with a backup plan. My original plan was to have lunch and relax at the beach, then head back to the station around 3 PM. But seeing how bad the traffic was, I had to get back to the station as soon as possible. Eat and leave. Because if I missed the train, I’d get to Surabaya way too late, and I had an early class the next morning.

Luckily, the restaurant wasn’t busy. So I was served quickly and got my food fast. While waiting, I prayed and asked for clear roads and to not miss my train.

I finished eating at 1:30 PM. According to my backup plan, I had to head back to the station immediately. This is where I got proof that He still hears my prayers.

The road was clear!

Sure, there are plenty of reasons why traffic would clear up in just 90 minutes. But I choose to believe it was because Allah listened to my prayer. That Allah still cares for me. That Allah wants me to keep trusting His plan. That Allah wants me to keep praying to Him. That Allah always answers my prayers: in His own way. So, never forget this! 🫵