After listening and studying what life is all about through school, religion and what my parents have taught me, I have broken down this activity of living things into three categories: faith, karma and destiny.

As long as people understand the meaning of these three things and believe in what they teach, I think they will not only be set for this summer, but also will be ready to handle any obstacle that comes in their way for the rest of their life.

A lot of famous musicians reference life as a lady, so I tend to believe that faith, karma and destiny are all the children of this lady.

But enough with this jibber jabber about the vague topic of life, as I will now break down each of her three children, helping you understand why I believe these ideas are the key to someone’s successful and happy future.

Faith

When someone first hears the word faith, they immediately start thinking about God and their religion. Even though faith has a lot to do with both of those concepts, that’s not what the word is all about.

Faith is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. You can have faith in your mother’s cooking. You can have faith that you will ace your next exam. You can have faith that the Detroit Red Wings hockey team will win the Stanley Cup this year. My point is, faith can deal with anything you have a strong belief in as long as you keep a positive attitude.

I think the key to having faith is staying positive in all circumstances no matter the difficult situations you might face. There are a lot of bumps on the road to a happy and successful life — some bigger than others — and some would just want to quit whatever they’re doing right then and there. But that’s when faith is working at its best. When all the odds are against you, the only things you have left are optimism and the belief good things will come, even if there is no proof in front of you.

Karma

Staying optimistic with faith leads me to my next child, the most misunderstood child of them all: karma. You see, karma was introduced to me as something that can come around and bite you harder than a starving piranha from the Amazon Basin. Now that might be true, because as we all know, karma has its times being a b**ch.

But what many people don’t realize is karma also can work in your favor. You see, karma has a lot to do with someone’s fate.

For example, if one person was bullied throughout his life until college, usually that same person is the owner of a big corporation making millions of dollars. Now if another person was a bully throughout his life until college, and they’re now working a 9-5 job for a million dollar corporation, more than likely a company owned by the person from the first example.

That’s how karma works. If you cooperate with it then it will be in your favor forever when you least expect it. But if you try messing with karma, like singer Alicia Keys said in one of her songs, “What goes around comes back around,” and usually it comes around more vicious than ever.

Destiny

Karma has a lot to do with the oldest and wisest child of them all: the concept of destiny. Destiny deals with the events that necessarily will happen to a particular person or thing in the future. No one knows what your destiny is, which leads to uncertainty. However, uncertainty is the thrill of life.

I call destiny wise because no one can predict their future, but what a person might not know is they can control their own destiny or future. You are made by the decisions you make. You decide on what you do or don’t want to do in life. If you want to become a famous actress or singer, it’s the steps you take today that will shape up what you will become in the future. If you have faith and believe in karma, you will understand that you control your own destiny.

Omar Thabet is a State News guest columnist and a journalism sophomore. Reach him at thabetom@msu.edu.