“To the girl I hurt in school, I have been wanting to write this letter to you all my life…”

To the girl I hurt in school, I have been wanting to write this letter to you all my life, well, most of my adult life anyway. This may be very selfish of me, but I wanted to say sorry for all the times I bullied you Whenever your name gets brought up or I try to teach my kids about bullying I think of you. I am disgusted with myself to think about the nasty things I said to you. You never did anything to me in school you were kind, pretty, and a good friend. Having matured and had children of my own, I can clearly see that I was jealous. I should have taken the friendship you offered and learned from you how to be a good person, maybe if I had a more positive role model in my life, I wouldn't have been jealous and mean who knows. What I do know is that maybe if I'd been nicer or brought you into our circle of friends you would have had a more positive high school experience maybe you wouldn't have turned to having to seek validation from boys. And just maybe, I could have helped you stay away from using drugs. I know your life has not been easy. Drug abuse is not easy to overcome. If I had any contribution...All I can do now is use this as a teaching lesson to my own children. Every day I send them off to school with "remember to be humble and kind." They think it's overkill but I tell them that they want to be better than me. Having kids really changes your perspective and if I could apologize to your mother, I would do that too. I'm sure my actions affected her as much or possibly more than you. Watching your child suffer is heartbreaking. Knowing I was the cause of such heartbreak makes me disgusted. Anyway, I don't know if I have caused more harm than good by reaching out but my gut told me to at least try. I wish I would have done this sooner. Or maybe you wish I hadn't at all. But whatever the outcome just know that I actively try to make my kids better. The cycle stops with me. I wish you the best in all you do. Take care, From a Reformed Bully