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For years, I hated the kid who bullied me.
He made my life miserable from the time I was in first or second grade. And I carried that hatred with me for decades.
Then, years later, I found out he owned a bar.
By then, I was a successful lawyer. I had lawyers working for me. I was wearing nice suits, driving a BMW, and I thought, “Perfect. I’m going to go see this guy.”
I walked in ready for 20 years of anger to finally have its moment.
He didn’t even recognize me.
And when he finally realized who I was, he immediately started telling everyone how awful he had been to me. How insecure he was. How jealous he was because I was smart. How his brothers tortured him at home, so he came to school and tortured me.
Then he told me how proud he was that I’d become a lawyer.
And I remember sitting there thinking:
God damn it. I can’t even hate you anymore.
I had carried around all of that anger for years, and he wasn’t carrying any of it.
That was a great lesson for me.
Sometimes the person you’re still angry at stopped living that moment a long time ago.
You’re the only one still carrying it.
Transcript
There was a young man who who essentially tortured me. Best made my life miserable. He bad just bullied me every day from, like, first or second grade on. Just tortured me. And, and I hated him. Like, I've never hated anything or anyone in my entire life. I I came to find out when I best started being successful as a lawyer. I bought a BMW. I was wearing decent suits for the first time. I had a couple of lawyers working for me. This is, like, early successful. And, I found out he owned a bar. I was like, let's no, and I'm gonna fuck with him. We get there. We get to the place. We sit down. We order some stuff, and I say to the young waitress who serves us. I said, by the way, this place is owned by John Smith. Right? Said, yeah. I said, is John here? She goes, yeah. He's probably in the office. I said, do me a favor. Could you could you come out? Could you tell him that someone's here that knows him? Disappears for a minute. I'm I'm and, like, I good feel the adrenaline. I'm like, oh my god. This is it. Like, this is so many years of just hatred. Like, it's ready. Comes out. And it's him. It's him. I don't know. Twenty years better, whatever. He comes out. And when I said, how you doing, John? And he goes, I'm great. How how you doing, guys? I said, good. Good. I said, you don't remember me. He said, no. No. I'm sorry. I don't. And Rank he goes, no. No. Not I'm sorry. I don't remember you. I go and the waitress is still standing there because she's sort of excited. Like, oh, I care. Like, he knows my boss. And I said, yeah. Jim Sexton. He goes, oh my god. He goes, wow. He goes, holy cow. He goes, I never would have recognized you. Oh my god. He's like, and he starts talking to the better. And he goes, this guy, we went to school better. From what what grade was it? Like, first grade, second grade? I said, yeah. First, second grade. He goes, yeah. He goes, oh my god. He goes, I was, like, such a little shit. And I you know, my brothers used to torture me. And, like, I used to come into school and torture him, but I was, like, just such an insecure little piece of garbage, and he was so smart, and I was so jealous that he was smart. And, like, what what do you what do you do for a living? And I was like, I'm a lawyer. I'm actually you no, these are these guys work for me. And he's like, I knew it. I knew you'd be something. Like, I knew you'd be a lawyer, a doctor. Like, this guy was so smart, and and I was so like, I was such an idiot that I was like, there's no like, I was so mad and jealous that he was such a smart guy. And, you know, I'm sitting tier, and I'm like, goddamn it. I can't punch your teeth out now, man. And he's like, yeah. He's like, oh my god, man. He's like, well, first of all, he's like, your whole your lunch is on me. Oh, man. I've been wasting all this hate all these years. I've been carrying Lots of good lessons to learn too, though. For
