My favorite story of instant karma happened around 10 years ago when I was just about to turn 21. Though it was my instant karma, not someone else’s I got to watch. I was unemployed, crashing on my best friend's couch, and couldn’t even afford to pay attention.

I found a job local bar that paid barely enough to cover the gas it took to get to and from my buddy’s place, but in less than a month the con’s outweighed the pro’s and the only sensible decision was to cut my losses and quit the job I hated. two weeks later, the anxiety began to build. Already having cashed my final check, I had $100 remaining and no clue when I would be making it again and even less of an idea where to start looking.

My buddy whom I was living with was dating another friend of mine, Johnny, so the three of us were almost always together. Unfortunately for Johnny he came down with a pretty rough case of walking pneumonia and had to go to the ER. He was prescribed some antibiotics but Johnny was just as unemployed as I was at the time, and it was going to cost $80 to fill his prescription. Johnny would never have mentioned needing the money had he known I still had $100 in my pocket, especially knowing it was the last of the money I would be getting, but it wasn’t until I was driving away from his house with my last $20 that the anxiety kicked itself into high gear.

I pulled over at a gas station a couple of miles down the road from Johnny’s, just as I was noticing my car was close to empty. So I went into the store, got $10 in gas, a pack of cigarettes, and on a whim, I spent the last $4 on two $2 scratch-offs. As I’m pumping gas and throwing the first ticket away, winning nothing, the anxiety turns into anger at myself for helping someone at a time when I couldn’t even help myself, and then guilt over being angry, and then anxiety again. I finished pumping gas, sit in t...