Honestly, I’ve always had my own unique way of looking at karma. People often talk about karma like it’s something that happens instantly — as if when you do something bad today, something terrible will happen to you the very next day. But from what I’ve seen and experienced, karma doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes, the consequences of someone’s actions don’t show up immediately. It could take months, years, or even generations before it catches up with them.
In my culture, we have something called “ogun idile,” which basically means a family curse. This usually happens when someone in the bloodline has committed a serious wrongdoing, and instead of facing the consequences during their lifetime, the effects end up falling on their descendants. It could be the children, grandchildren, or even great-grandchildren who end up suffering for something they had absolutely nothing to do with.
This is actually one of the scariest things to me. Sometimes, I think about it deeply and even question my mum because it doesn’t seem fair at all. Why should I, someone who wasn’t even born at the time, have to carry the burden of something my father, grandfather, or someone else in my family might have done years ago? I didn’t choose my family or my bloodline, so it really worries me to think that I could be facing problems in life not because of anything I did wrong, but because of something that happened long before my existence. To me, that’s the worst kind of karma.
Another thing I’ve noticed in life is how unpredictable karma can be. You’ll see someone doing good every day — helping people, being honest, showing kindness — and yet, bad things keep happening to them. Meanwhile, someone else can go around doing terrible things and seem to get away with it for years. It almost feels like life is unfair sometimes. The good people seem to face more trials, while the bad ones enjoy for a very long time. It actually doesn’t always make sense to me, and that’s what makes karma even more mysterious.
However, karma can also act quickly. I’ve experienced that personally. Back in the hostel, I once stole someone’s money. At the time, I didn’t really think about it too much. But not long after, I ended up losing my own money in a painful way. The feeling hit me hard. It was like life made me experience exactly what I made that person feel. I couldn’t even blame anyone because, deep down, I knew it was karma.
All in all, I’ve come to believe that no matter how delayed or unpredictable karma might be, it’s always important to choose to do the right thing. Our actions don’t just affect us — they affect the people who come after us. We’re planting seeds for our future generations with the way we live today. So, even if life doesn’t always reward or punish people immediately, I believe that what goes around eventually comes around, in one way or another.
Thanks for reading.