As a young girl, my parents engraved the word, “Karma” in my head which later growing up I started to understand, acknowledge and experience what the true meaning is. Karma means “The sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences,” which is also commonly known as, “What goes around, comes around.” Karma can work in your favor or against, it depends on the person and their actions. If you do something good for someone today, it will come back to you as good karma. If you hurt someone, it will come back to you as bad karma. The only person your actions will effect in the long run is yourself; the decision is yours to make.

I have experienced both good and bad karma and when it was bad, I knew what I had done wrong in my past to deserve what I was going through in my present. The more karma continues to bite me, the more aware I become in the next action that I take. Most people fear the idea of karma and it is because they fear what they have coming after they knowingly did something wrong.

When I was fifteen years old, I was hurt by somebody I thought I trusted and I sought revenge knowing I was going to hurt that person just as she had done to me. After the action was taken, the following day my first thought was, “Karma.” I knew what I had coming for me, it was not going to be today, it was not going to be tomorrow, but in time, I would get what I deserved. I tried to make things right with the person, in fact I did make things right with her but it still did not make up for the damage that I knowingly caused. A year later when everything was left behind and that negative chapter in my life was closed, I found myself in that girls shoes in the exact same situation. I didn’t have anyone else to blame but myself, although no girl should have to go through what happened, I felt like I received a fair punishment and karma served me what I had coming. She got her inevitable karma as well, despite my retaliation. Fate took its own course. It was after this series of events I learned not to meddle with fate because that girl eventually got what she deserved and my fate could have stayed clean, but instead I hurt myself in the process too.

Not everyone is a believer in karma but in some shape or form, one way or another, it really does exist. I’ve experienced it and I’ve seen others face what they had coming as well. It may not come to the person the way they hurt you but it will come to them at their given time. It is hard not to feel the desire to retaliate when feeling betrayed and hurt. It takes a lot to get over it as well but the one thing I constantly remind myself is that the person will get their punishment just as bad, if not worse.

I couldn’t count the amount of times I’ve thought about petty things I could do to give someone a taste of their own medicine but I did not have it in me to pursue any of those thoughts. I feel bad for even thinking negative ideas but it is human nature to do so when you are enduring the pain someone has caused you. But that memory of the pain I went through years ago that I felt I caused for myself remains a scar that will stay with me for the rest of my life. So no matter how bad I want to give tit for tat, I know that it is better not to interfere with what is planned for them because then I just become a part of their storm’s path.

Today I have learned the best way to go is to kill people with kindness. Because not only will they have their inevitable karma but they will also feel guilt for what they have done without having to use one negative bone in my body. The best retaliation is to be above it, nothing bothers the person more than showing them that you do not care and that it did not impact you. It’s natural to feel hatred, pain, betrayal but stepping above it all feels even better.

Move on from the things that have hurt you because they will soon be lessons learned. Think about the positive you do have in your life and embrace them. Put yourself in others shoes and think before you speak. Do not stoop to someone’s level, because your character is better than that. Let karma’s course create its own revenge path because that is a dark route you do not want to take on. Do not let the darkness of your past become an overcast on your future, life is too short to engage in negative activity. Be the best person that you can be, who you were destined to be and continue on your beautiful journey.