Something came to my mind today that got me thinking.  People say a lot of things and I would bet a good chunk of those things aren’t nice.  Growing up I wasn’t the most popular kid or best looking or the smartest.  I had a lot of friends and I knew a lot of people but I only talked to and hung out with a close few.  So when I heard a song on the radio it got me thinking about when I was younger (or even now for that matter) about the things that not only I say but others.

When I was sitting there thinking about it I got a little upset.  I’ve said a lot of things that I probably shouldn’t have said and worse yet is that I didn’t apologize for what I said later on.  It just continued on until it “vanished”.  And then I realized that it doesn’t ever “vanish”.  I thought about things that people have said to me and teased me about.  I started to feel upset because I remembered that those things did hurt me, even the times it was said in jest.

I was/am self conscious about certain things about myself and when they are pointed out it doesn’t make me feel good. And I am sure it is like this for everyone else.  And then there are things that I am not self conscious about but others might be so just because I am not self conscious about it doesn’t mean I should make jokes about that to others because they might be.  You may not think that what you are saying will have much of an impact if any on people, I know that’s what I thought. But now I am sitting here writing this and some of the things that I have been thinking about was from ten-plus years ago.

There have been times I said something and then felt horrible enough to apologize later and I am glad I did those couple times because if it made me feel that awful about just saying it imagine how that person you said it to felt. I still feel bad about those words.  I know we all can’t be perfect and won’t always say the right things but I think we need to start to apologize more, understand that the smallest words could have the biggest impact.  Tell your friends and loved ones that you love them and let them know how much they mean to you.  I don’t do that enough either.  I have started to write letters to my relatives (near and far) to let them know that I love them and appreciate them.

There is a lot of hate in this world.  Bullies are in school and online.  People are hurting and we can do something about it.  We need to have the courage to say something, get out of our comfort zone to step in and let people know that there are people that care.