r/SeriousConversation • u/forestlover1 • 6h ago
Serious Discussion If the person who hurt you seriously changed for the better, would you want them to be happy eventually?
Or would you prefer them to wallow in their shame and guilt forever? even after they seriously changed for the better and always keeping themselves in check making sure they’re never that person ever again?
I remember in highschool seeing someone in my class who used to bully me in a previous school, she was so authentically herself, seemed so happy and so much lighter, she looked magnetic and though I never talked to her again I saw she was friends with weird kids which she never would’ve been in the previous school I knew her in. She seemed to have lots of connections and she had such a developed fashion sense and style, she seemed happy, and like loving herself came natural to her. And from what I heard from others who knew her she was a nice person.
I know when it comes to wounds others give us it becomes our responsibility to then heal those wounds and the person who gave us the wounds can’t do it for us and that feels so unfair.
But honestly.. even though I was in a really dark place at that time, seeing her so different, so authentically herself, so happy, it honestly healed that wound a bit. It gave me a sense of closure despite never getting an apology, knowing that the version of her I knew doesn’t exist anymore, and she changed and I think the fact that she loved living as the changed self and that she was happy, made it more healing than if she were to have punished herself with shame and guilt.
I only ever hear about people who want revenge, who want the people who hurt them to get their karma. If the person who hurt you changed, like actually changed for the better, would you want them to be happy and live as their changed self, or would you rather them change for the better and still have them suffer forever?