Just So You Know, I Forgive You

Perhaps you didn’t know better, or maybe you did and did not care.

Perhaps it was true viciousness, or, as people told me after the fact, “Boys being Boys”. It didn’t seem that way, but who knows what was going on in your life? Maybe this is what you thought it was about. Maybe, given enough time, that was what I would have thought too. Perhaps you were hurting and you ended up don't realize you'll hurt me.

But we crossed paths. In the end, only one of us could walk away with the head held high.

I never quite knew such loneliness before.

It’s not just the things you would say to me, but the fact that everyone else seemed to agree. Everyone, including the adults, rushed to tell me: I was wrong to have my feelings hurt, that I should not be taking you seriously. Everyone seemed to defend what you were doing. and deep down I get it. you never meant to stay anyway.

But It went against everything I knew. What happened to kindness, what happened to empathy? It seemed as though it didn’t matter at all. What mattered was how much you have liked yourself, and how many people you had on your side.

That mindfuck is not your fault, of course. That’s not what I’m forgiving you for.

I’m forgiving you for being cruel.

I’m forgiving you for taking out on me whatever it was that was torturing you at the time. your past hurt. or whatever it was.

I'm forgiving you for treating me as a punched bag, a spare, something that will fill your free time, at least till something better or new comes up.

I'm forgiving you for walked away before giving me fighting chance, just assumed I will be as demanding as your previous.

Mind, you probably don’t care one way or another. But then again, I’m not forgiving you for your sake. I’m doing it for mine.

I feel you.. maybe that was the reason I was so attracted to you.

I feel your pain somehow, and never once I thought someone that knew the pain of loss will cause it to another human being.

but, I forgive you anyway.

It’s taken me Months – and a trip to that bad place – to realize what you did had nothing to do with me. It was personal, but only in the most superficial of ways. The cruelty, the viciousness, that was all for you. I gave you an opening, and you went for the jugular.

Perhaps it was all you knew to do.

Perhaps you just wanted to do it.

It’s okay. I’m letting go of that now.

I’m letting go of looking for you in the face of every person who is cruel, selfish, or evil. I’m letting go of trying to appease you, of being your friend. I’m forgiving you for being you so that I can stand up and walk, instead of crawl, and help others walk too.

I forgive you.

Perhaps, in time, you will be able to forgive yourself, too.