What Goes Around Comes Around

Table Rock summer 2008. That was just one of the great memories that one of my best friends I shared. For over a year, we spent countless hours together doing stupid but enjoyable things that we would joke about months later. As time passed, my friend met new people and the good memories started to fade, as not so pleasant memories replaced them. These new memories were full of rudeness and negativity. Instead of being funny and cheery, my friend was mean unpleasant to be around. Once when another one of my friends and I were talking about a movie she came up and started saying how she hated the movie and how stupid she thought we were. My friend and I were shocked at how offensive she was to us. She also lied about things that she had no reason to lie about, and didn’t tell me about important things. I got tired of her negative attitude and after finding out that she was lying to me, I didn’t want to be around her anymore. I told her that I didn’t like her attitude and after she didn’t change, I started hangout out with her less and less. She didn’t treat us the same way that she would want to be treated, so we didn’t treat her as well because of it. This is just one example of karma that I see on a daily basis.

I think that what goes around comes around. The Buddhists describe my belief in karma as “action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation” (dictionary.com). I believe that no matter how big or small something is, it will come back around. It could be as small as greeting people as they walk by or something bigger like shoplifting, there will still be some affect. I knew that good karma was rewarding those who deserve it when my friend got recognized for her great attitude and hard work.

Not only do bad things come back around, but good things do to. One of my best friends is on the dance team. She’s not particularly athletic, but she’s the nicest person I know. I never looked at her as a dancer, and when she made the varsity dance team, I was shocked. I didn’t think that she had enough talent to succeed on a championship dance team, but I supported her anyways. Throughout the season, my friend gave 110% to be the best dancer she could be. She was at every practice and was always enthusiastic. One Friday morning at assembly, Coach Daues went up to announce the athlete of the week. For the first time ever, it was an individual on the dance team. My first thought was one of the senior captains, typical for the award. Then as he described the person as a sophomore who had the best attitude and always put a lot of effort into everything ,I realized that it was my best friend. As he said her name, the school started clapping. It was the loudest applause for an athlete of the week that I had ever heard. All of the sophomores were so excited for my friend because we all knew how hard she worked and how much she deserved to win athlete of the week. Her hard work paid off and she was awarded for everything that she had done. Although my friend’s payoff was to her advantage, one of my basketball teammates was not so lucky.

Sometimes small things like telling a little white lie can come back and bite you in the butt. A girl on my basketball team called her boss and told him that she hurt her knee during practice to get out of working that day. She hadn’t actually done anything to her knee, she just didn’t want to go to work and thought saying she was hurt would be a harmless excuse. Although she had no bad intentions by lying, karma still caught up to her. It was a typical thing for her to do, so my teammates and I all laughed about it and then thought nothing else of it. The next day during practice while we were running sprints, she fell. It ended up that she had torn a ligament in her knee and her lie became the truth.

These life experiences have caused me to believe that what goes around will come all the way back around. People notice when others do a good thing and they also notice people are not being the best person they can be. I believe whether it’s lying, treating people badly or giving 110%, karma will find a way to reward or punish the one deserving of it. Before I do something, or make a big decision, I think about how the people around me have been affected by what they’ve done and I try to do the right thing based on that.