Dear J.A.,
When we were kids, you came to school greasy and dirty, wearing ill-fitting clothes and velcro sneakers. You blinked a lot and stuttered and you were very shy. The kids made fun of you mercilessly. I made fun of you after a while myself. In hindsight, your parents must have been neglectful addicts, degenerates, it couldn’t have been very good for you at home. Since we finished school I’ve thought of you every once in a while, and wondered what your life turned out like, and if you’re happy. I wish I’d have been brave enough to befriend you or to stick up for you. I’ve prayed for you for years. I’m so sorry and I hope you have people who love and care for you now. —I did it to you because people did it to me
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2010.
Please find this person, don’t sound like a charity case. A balance of care and interest without baby-ing someone is hard but important.
I’ve been apologizing lately for things in my past. It is an amazing feeling.
My god….. there are certainly a few people I’d love to apologize to profusely…. hit the reset button even. Perhaps 2012 will give me that opportunity… cause I really can’t see that kind of shit happening under current circumstances. Unless it was in the form of an anonymous love I may or may not have posted a while back………… yeah, like that person would have read it.
Please find this person and get in touch! I was once one of these people… I wish some of the people who were mean to me in school would apologize. It would lift a huge weight off of me to at least know that they knew what they did. I’m glad you’re one of those awesome people OP.
I was teased relentlessly in elementary school (afterwards, I faded into the background and people didn’t notice me), and it really, really stuck with me. After graduation, I went camping with some friends and one of my childhood bullies was there. He, albeit drunkenly, apologized to me for what he did when we were in elementary school. It might have been a drunken apology, but it really DID mean the world to me. It really, really helped. 🙂
I hereby apologize to the one I called ‘cheese please’…
What?!?! she looked like a mouse….
then again, as some of you know, I had my own fair share to deal with….
I think this could literally apply to anyone who’s out of school.