I can be a very serious person, but when I'm around people I consider my friends, I tend to become a completely different person, and I joke a lot. There have been instances where some of those jokes had maybe crossed the line, and I had to apologize immediately because I also happen to be someone who doesn't hesitate to admit my wrongdoings.
Well, it turned out that there have been situations or other times when other people didn't exactly find my jokes to be funny, and rather than bring my attention to it, some chose to just move on. And I don't blame them, because, like it or not, not everyone can be like that. Not everyone is that bold to tell you to your face that what you did, or in this case, what you said, was wrong.
Well, yesterday was the first time in about nine years since I met anyone that I've known since high school. Two of my friends happened to be in the same state that I was in, and we had decided to hang out yesterday.
It was a fun hangout; it felt fantastic to see these guys after all these years. But somewhere along the line we began to talk, like really talk, and that was when I got to realize they really weren't that happy with me.
And at first I was ready to defend myself, but luckily for me, I've learned to let people talk and not interrupt them, especially when we aren't having, like, a fierce argument but mere conversations. And I was happy I did that because the more they spoke, the more I realized that maybe I may have offended these people in some ways.
But then I also made them understand that none of it was intentional. To me, some of the things I had said back then were things I said because I was with friends and never took any of those words seriously, not knowing they did.
I ended up apologizing to them because, again, saying that I'm sorry and meaning it has never been something difficult for me to do. But I had also urged them to try to correct their friends (in this case, me) whenever they see them doing something they feel isn't right. Because, like it or not, the only way we learn from things like this and become better people is by first being told or shown our mistakes.