I feel like a lot of people in my generation now lack empathy for others, maybe empathy is too complex of a word to even use. The bare minimum of just being considerate of other people's feelings and emotions is what we lack the most, especially in relationships.. I've always thought it was so unfair that those people can just continue on with their lives, no apology, knowing they’ve hurt you. 

Not too long ago I was lying in my bed, it was around 10pm on a school night and I was scrolling through TikTok to unwind from the day. Suddenly, I received a DM on Instagram from a boy I talked to over a year ago, one of those boys I had put so much into just to be humiliated in the end. A look of confusion and suspicion displayed on my face as I opened the DM to a long paragraph of writing that said:

“Hey Shyann, I know this is extremely overdue and I should've said this a long time ago, but I'm really sorry for the way things ended up. I think about it every time I walk into AP Psych and see you and I feel like this is the least I could do, and what I should've done a while ago. I was, and maybe still am in some ways, a very greedy person and I took what you gave to me for granted. I'm sorry and I hope this makes things maybe just a little bit better, probably not, but I just needed to do this for my own peace. Hope you're doing well.”

I had no idea what to say, it had been so long that I honestly forgot how things went down. We never got super close, so after a little while I put the situation on the top shelf in the back of my mind and moved on. I'm not the type of person to hold grudges against others, especially for things that I got over quickly. I just sat there for a moment with my mouth hung slightly open trying to conjure up a response to this, but I started to get lost in my thoughts. I realized that almost every falling out I’ve had with someone I always blamed myself to some degree and then just forced it to the back of my mind. This one message flipped a switch in my head, it reminded me that I never did anything wrong and it's these people who had made the mistakes. 

That message I received that night from a person I had moved on from so long ago made such a difference, even if he didnt think it would. Because of his maturity, I got the closure I never even knew that I needed. I told him that and after a quick conversation that was it. He didn’t want anything else from me which shows that he genuinely just wanted to apologize. Maybe this is proof that some people actually can't just continue on with their lives after making mistakes, you never know unless they have the consideration to tell you how they feel.