An open letter: To all those who I've hurt and all those who have hurt me,
In my life, much like in everyone else’s I suppose, I have been hurt by people. Sometimes by silly, petty things and sometimes by things that hit me right where it hurts. I have also hurt people. Sometimes by accident. Sometimes, I regret to say, I have on purpose. I think that everyone can say the former statements.
Emotions are funny things, aren’t they? You may be the most logical, grounded person but can still be swept up into a frenzy of emotions and act out in ways you never expected to. People fall in love and are blinded to the things around them. People get angry or upset and say things they may regret. People get jealous, happy, scared, insecure, worn out, excited, anxious, depressed, and the list can go on and on.
It’s easy to forget that everyone’s actions can be traced back to some thought or feeling. It’s easy to just decide someone is a nasty person when they do something that hurts and forget that they probably did it out of an emotional reaction.
For me, the past couple months have been very intense and I have seen a lot of people hurt and sad and angry and lash out. I have felt and done these things as well. For a while I was too hurt to think about it with a clear mind, but now all of that has passed. I have moved on and now I can look back at the situation and recognize how things went so wrong. I can see how I didn’t go about some of the things I did in the right way. I can see that the only reasons others hurt me was because they were hurt too.
You know in Mean Girls how all the shit hits the fan and then they get to the point where there is nothing left to do except to apologize and just let go of all the hard feelings. I think it’s time I need to do that. So here it is:
To the one I betrayed. I am so sorry that I didn’t talk to you sooner. I’m sorry that what I did hurt you. I hope you understand I never ever wanted to hurt you and I guess I just wasn’t thinking things through. You have always been an incredibly sweet person and it breaks my heart that the way I went about things was more harmful to you then they needed to be. It was a hard situation to begin with and I wasn’t sensitive enough to your feelings.
To the one I called my best friend. I am so sad that things went so wrong with us. We used to be so close and you were so important to me. You met me at a time in my life when I was trying to figure myself out and you stuck with me though I was not the easiest. You taught me to be strong and that tea can cure anything. But most importantly I just had so much fun with you and I really do miss that. So I want to apologize for how things ended with you. I really regret the way we left things. I’m sorry.
To the one I didn’t help. You came forward with something that was difficult for you and I was too caught up in my own problems to lend a hand. It’s one of my biggest regrets. We were never much of friends, but I would like to think of myself as someone that would help anyone - but I proved myself to be nothing like that. I’m really sorry. I hope things have gotten better for you.
And finally, to the ones that felt stuck in the middle. I’m sorry if over the past few months you have felt trapped between people. Please know that there are no sides or anything. Just because some of us had a falling out does not mean we can’t be mature adults about it. I hope I didn’t cause too much confusion in your life’s.
I’m trying to think of how to end this letter and nothing good is really coming to me. I guess I said all I needed to say so I will just end with:
Though I have been extremely hurt over the past few months, there is nothing I can do about that. All I can do is apologize for my own mistakes. Some of you have come forward to apologize to me and I really appreciate that. It means a lot.
I know this is a couple months later than it probably should be, but I had to take time to clear my head and really think about all that went on.
If you read this, please don’t feel you need to say anything if you don’t want or even forgive me if you can’t. I sincerely love you all and hope I have not harmed you too much. You all played an important role in my life and I’m sorry it had to end.