By Emily Yelverton, TIWP Student

“I’m sorry,” she whispered for the fourth time, sheepish and small.

“All you ever are is sorry, and that’s not a bad thing, but know nothing is your fault.”

The floor tilted and she lost all footing. Sorry was her way of shrinking and taking up less space, having a net to fall on if one ended up resentful. Because if someone stopped apologizing, do they care?

I believe saying sorry is a reflex and is hardly ever meant or even necessary. Everything seems so large and important when it’s thrown at you, when you fall at the thing you were only trying for the first time. If we need to fail to succeed, why are we sorry?

She takes a step back, and looks at the cascade of events, and realizes taking away the sorry takes away the blame on herself. It makes it an unfortunate happening instead. Apologizing makes you vulnerable to people‘s influence and takes away that beautiful and individuality that is you. We have to let ourselves be human and make mistakes, and not beat ourselves up for them, even if it feels like the end of the world at the time.

Every single person feels this way yet if everyone makes mistakes, why are we at fault? Choices get made and things happen and people get pushed and feelings get hurt and tests are failed. No one is solely at fault. So why are we sorry if we did nothing wrong? If all we ever are is sorry, who are we really?