The moment that Jake had been waiting for arrived. However, he couldn’t bring himself to click on the email. What if he was wait-listed? Worse, what if he was rejected? Jake’s dream was to become an astronaut, and the first step was going to Space Camp, which was a very competitive process. Jake had gone through three rounds of interviews, two rounds of physical testing, and a thorough review of his grades. The last part was what had Jake worried. He was a good student, but he had gotten off to a slow start in Math this year. Jake struggled with some of the concepts and fell behind in the fall. Thanks to some extra work and tutoring, Jake caught back up with his class, but his grades were not exactly where they needed to be. Jake hoped his performance on the other parts of the evaluation would make up for his grades.

“Well,” thought Jake, “I can’t wait forever. I might as well get on with it.” So, with one hand over his face, and his eyes peeking through his fingers, Jake clicked to open his email. “Dear Jake,” began the letter, “We were very impressed with you, and think you will make an excellent Space Camper this summer.” Jake’s heart started to expand, and he removed his hand from his face. “However,” the email continued. Jake’s heart sank. “Your math scores were just not strong enough for us to accept you immediately.” Tears began to well in Jake’s eyes. “Nevertheless,” began the next sentence, as Jake started to feel optimistic again. “We would like to offer you a chance to earn a spot for July if you can demonstrate improved Math skills. Attached is a summary of which skills we believe need improvement. Please come in on June 28th at 11:30am for a final assessment. Your performance on this test will decide your fate for the summer. Best of luck!”

For the first time in his life, Jake felt exhausted from reading an email. What a roller coaster of emotions. In the end, Jake was happy. The outcome was in his hands, and as long as he worked hard for the next two months, he should succeed. Jake rushed from his room to tell his parents the mostly good news.

That evening, Jake and his parents sat down to plan out his preparation. They broke the material into topics and scheduled them out over the next eight weeks. Jake found a few websites to use for review, and his mother and father agreed to pay for a subscription. Based on their plan, if Jake studied 2 hours a night for the next eight weeks (with one night off per week), he should be able to cover the material without a problem. That night was Jake’s first, and he breezed through two hours of studying, which felt more like twenty minutes.

However, as the next few weeks went on, Jake’s studying started to feel more and more like a burden. He still had his regular schoolwork, and on top of that, the weather outside was beautiful. Jake had a hard time staying inside all afternoon and evening, while his friends rode their bikes, went fishing, and played basketball. Additionally, Jake had a few events he had to attend during this time. Graduations, family birthday parties, and visiting his grandparents all took time from studying. Between the feeling of missing out, and the actual missed studying time, Jake did not cover all the material he hoped to.

But June 28th came right on schedule, along with Jake’s test. At 10:30 a.m. Jake and his mother got in the car and headed over to the campsite. On the way, Jake’s mother told him how proud she was of him for all his hard work. “But Mom!” replied Jake, “I didn’t get it all done! Why are you proud of me!” His mother smiled. “I might be even more proud of you because you didn’t get it all done.” Jake looked puzzled. “Even though you had setbacks, you never gave up. Even when you knew there was little chance you would cover it all, you kept working. Let’s just see how this goes.”

Once Jake completed his test, his proctor told him to wait and his score would be out momentarily. Twenty painful minutes later, the camp director entered the waiting room. “Jake,” he said with a smile. “Welcome aboard!” Jake returned the smile and shook the director’s hand. “Thanks! So I passed the test?” The director shook his head “no, you didn’t. But the amount you improved during a very busy part of your year showed us all we needed to see. Congratulations!”

In this week’s parsha we read about the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer. We are told to count seven weeks and that we should also count 49 days. By including both counts (days and weeks), Hashem is teaching us that when we have bigger goals in mind (weeks) but can’t reach them, we can still make each individual part (days) count.

Yair Daar is the director of Student Life at Bicultural Hebrew Academy High School. He can be reached at [email protected]