Woman Meets Partner on Vacation She Was Supposed to Take with Ex (Exclusive)

When Sabrina Zohar packed her bags for a trip to San Diego in November 2022, it was supposed to be a romantic getaway. But days before Thanksgiving, her relationship unraveled — and so did her plans. 

A year prior, a promising opportunity to pitch her loungewear brand on Shark Tank had unexpectedly fallen through, leaving her in a dark place. In the aftermath, she fell into a fast-moving relationship that initially felt comforting but quickly revealed a deeper issue.

“After Shark Tank, I met this guy who I thought was everything I wanted; he was texting every day, we had the cute little nicknames and were doing all the stuff, and this all happened within a month,” Zohar, 35, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“Then my dog got sick and passed away … and that’s when I realized this guy just was not there for me. He would just stand there while I was crying hysterically and say, ‘I don’t know what to do.’”

Zohar initially convinced herself that the relationship was meaningful because it appeared to be a good fit on paper — they texted every day, which was considered a “green flag” on TikTok and social media. But when her dog died just before their holiday plans, it became painfully clear that her partner couldn’t show up for her emotionally.

“I was at his house, and he just made a f—– up comment, and I just said, ‘I’m done. I’m not doing this. You’re not for me,’” she reminisces. “I left, I cried and I remember looking at my mom saying, ‘We’re going to go [to San Diego] anyway.'”

Little did she know that her decision to go on the trip without him would change everything.

Within days, Zohar downloaded Hinge and matched with her now-partner. They eventually went to dinner and “the rest was history.”

“All I kept thinking was, holy s—! Had I come down with that guy, I would have never [made] the decision to say, ‘I’m going to do it for me and I’m not going to do it for anyone else,'” she says.

“It allowed me to be so open to meeting somebody who ended up being so beautiful, and such a great relationship for me,” she continues. “But I would never have done it if I hadn’t made that one small, inconspicuous decision: I’m not going to let this person ruin my trip. I’m going to go anyway.”

Today, Zohar is a dating coach who helps others break out of toxic patterns, tune into and prioritize their emotional needs — a career path she never would’ve imagined just a few years prior.

But her journey, she says, is a real-life example of the “butterfly effect” — the idea that small, seemingly insignificant decisions can spark major transformations.

Still, that shift didn’t happen overnight.

While promoting her clothing brand around the time of Shark Tank, Zohar regularly appeared on podcasts and panels to build her platform. During one event, however, a friend suggested that she start her own podcast, pointing out how naturally she spoke about dating and work.

Zohar dismissed the idea at the time, doubting anyone would care about what she had to say.

“I had self-identified that if my clothing company didn’t work, then I was a failure,” she adds. “I really believed that I had to do this, and didn’t allow myself to leave space for the universe to reveal something else, something bigger for me.”

Looking back, Zohar sees the ripple effect of that mindset shift everywhere — not just in her love life, but in her career and sense of self. 

From walking away from her ex to going on the San Diego trip regardless of what had happened, each choice felt small in the moment, but paved the way for an entirely different future.

“I think the butterfly effect is a small decision that could lead to a larger effect. That’s why to me, that one small decision of walking out of my exes’ house and not trying to convince him, not trying to keep him and not trying to stay — that one decision of saying, ‘F— it, I’m going to go to San Diego,’” she continues. “It’s a culmination of small decisions that ultimately lead to a total transformation.”

While the butterfly effect celebrates small choices leading to big change, Zohar is more skeptical of the idea that people are bound to one another by fate alone, especially when it comes to love.

When asked about her thoughts on the “invisible string theory,” the idea that certain people are cosmically tied together, Zohar has her doubts.

“My concern with [the invisible string theory] is that we put this idea in our heads that certain people are meant to be [in our lives]. What I think that does is [it makes] you force people to stay in your life maybe longer than they need to,” she says.

“I’ve had that [happen to me], where I thought this one guy was my soulmate and [it] was meant to be. It was eight years of this — I held onto this guy for eight f—— years of on and off, back and forth, and he kept getting a new girlfriend.”

Instead of clinging to what wasn’t working, the 35-year-old dating coach and podcast host learned to loosen her grip and trust the universe.

For Zohar, the “butterfly effect” isn’t about one perfect, serendipitous moment or obsessing over what’s missing — it’s about staying present and open to what is still unfolding. “Every single day means that we’re one step closer to what is coming,” she says.