iRegret.net

Dear me:

I’m sorry I didn’t try harder. I’m sorry for always blaming you. I’m sorry for not loving you. I’m sorry for the bruises and the scars and the nights spent crying. I’m sorry I didn’t get help. I’m sorry I never told. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But most of all, I’m sorry I don’t love you, still. I just don’t know how.

Submitted by: Holley

To my ex:

I am sorry that I went out with you for a year and a half and didn’t have the courage to break up with you when I thought I should have. I fell in love, or what I thought love to be, and then watched as you betrayed me for a guy that in all reality isn’t worth much. I am sure one day, the sorrow will be on the opposite end. Everything comes back to haunt us, the universe has a way to make us atone for hurting others.

Good luck in the real world.

After you graduate from college you’ll see how hard it is, but by then things will have already fallen apart.

Submitted by: James

Today a woman friend of mine cried in my arms, and though I was holding her, was there with all of me, she was inconsolable. Her husband left her. He loves her but he loves the possibilities that a new woman represents more. She does not deserve it, and I want to be her champion, remind her as I’d remind anybody of what a vibrant, charming woman she is, how precious and worthy, reliable and loving, witty and sexy, tall and poised… How sorry I am for all these losses that are often not our faults and still we claim them, take responsibility. I see my friend do that now, everyday, assign herself twenty, thirty, then forty pounds of blame, weighing herself down, turning herself into a discard, an unlovable thing. Better it be her fault than inexplicable, outside her control. Better it be her fault than his — see how she still protects him? Why? Because she loves him, even now.  After all this and fifteen years of marriage. She’ll love him for a long time, but the hope is that she’ll come to love herself more and someday soon find a man who believes the possibilities she represents just impossible to part with.

Submitted by: Cassie

To Ryan –

I regret not leaving him for you.

Jane

To David,

I am truly sorry this happened to you. I feel so bad. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt, never wanted to lose you. I don’t want to be without you. It hurts so much to know that you won’t even talk to me. I know you are so upset with me right now and you said you don’t care. I could not stop or change what happened. Please don’t let this stop us from being together. I know I have not always been good for you, but I want to make you happy.

Submitted by: Gina

To my autistic twin boys, I’m so sorry that I wasn’t stronger but I did the best I could do… and still it isn’t enough. I always feel that I could have tried harder and pushed you more during that period of time that I was grieving. Now that critical time is lost and I’m ashamed. When I realized all that you would go through in life and all the help you would need, it felt that I could only put one foot in front of the other and make it through the day. I’m on my emotional feet now, but the poverty factor is overwhelming. We could be so much better off if only there was more money to get you services. I now understand what it means to be “working poor.” I try to take the high road of faith and think, “Well, I love you with all my heart”… but in this case, my love isn’t enough. Lets just hope GOD hears my prayers and forgives my weaknesses and the protection of Grace is really with you both. I really regret that I don’t physically/financially have more to give because I would give you your own safe world.

Submitted by: Joann

To M.A.A.,

I’m sorry that our long friendship meant nothing to you but that a man that beats you does. And all the times you’ve chosen drugs over time with me when I would come to visit. I’m sorry I stayed your friend even when you didn’t care about my cancer.
Submitted by: KC

To M.A.A,

I’m sorry that I didn’t have the courage to scream when your man came to lay in bed with me. I’m sorry I was too afraid to tell you what happened. But most of all I’m sorry that you ruined our friendship over a man that beats you all the time. You two deserve each other.

Submitted by: KC

JC…..I am so sorry that the last time we talked I didn’t realize how sad you were. I was so wrapped up in all my drama with Chris that it didn’t even occur to me that things were bad for you even when you said they were OK. I should have tried harder to get you to stay up here instead of moving back home. I should have told hubby Chris that you were going to live with us, no matter what. You needed me and I completely let you down. Now you are gone. I see you everywhere even though it has been over two years. I am also sorry that I “cursed” you after you took your life. That was selfish and heartless of me. I didn’t understand that you were hurting and couldn’t bring yourself to share, not that you were being selfish. You tried so many times to help me with all my problems, especially my addiction to narcotics. I brushed you off, especially after you opened up to me about your Mom. That must have been really hard for you and I didn’t even say thank you for your care.  I have wronged so many people over the years and I am really trying to make things right, I am clean and sober now. I hope wherever you are, you know that. And I couldn’t have done it without your grace and strength to help me along. Even though you’re not here, I can feel you and I know you’re happy for me and my family even though I am sure I hurt you so much. I have hurt so many, many friends, but I think I regret hurting you and then losing you before I could make it right more than anything. And even though I know you knew I was just kidding, I am sorry that I always made fun of your stature. Being tall, it is just natural for me to make fun of short people and you took my ribbing with grace and humor. I am not sure what happens to us after we die….according to my in-laws, we meet people we love again. I sincerely hope they are right because I want to see you again and talk to you and tell you how much I love(d) you and how sorry I am. I wish I could have saved you, JC. I would gladly trade my life for yours. I know that is easy to say as it can never happen, but I am sincere in that statement and I am sorry that it isn’t something I can actually do.

Submitted by: Amy S.

When I was 12, I was stupid and insecure and learned that wearing suggestive clothing doesn’t give anyone the right to put their hands on you.

Aurelie, I’m sorry that I didn’t have enough sense to talk you out of your silence. I’m sorry I didn’t stand up to you when you swore me to secrecy. I’m sorry I was too weak to do what was right.

Submitted by: Maria

I’m sorry for always getting on your nerves. I know I really bother you….no matter how much you play it off like it’s no big deal. I’m sorry. And I think it would be better if you just told me straight to my face just how much I get on your nerves….and that’s all it’s gonna take for me to leave you alone. I promise. I won’t ever bother you again….just tell me the truth.

Submitted by: Anonymous

Sara, I’m sorry I moved out of our apartment abruptly.  I fell in love and was afraid of a confrontation with you.  I’ve always felt bad that we didn’t get to discuss it openly.  I don’t know why I felt I needed to hide my realtionship from you. I regret that we didn’t talk it out.

I often think about the fun times we had!  The Wednesday-night show with pizza, swing dancing, junk days….oh, we did have good times.

Submitted by: A cousin

B —

I’m sorry I said what I said, and did what I did. I was on antidepressants (which were supposed to help my irregular heartbeat) and treated everyone badly; friends, family, even strangers, but you got the brunt. I became angry, violent, paranoid, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to live up to the expectations I had set, and would disappoint you. I told you that your affections made me angry, that you had no value as a person, but that wasn’t me talking. The fact is you are the only person I ever loved, ever cared about, ever wanted to spend every moment with. It was a blessing to wake up next to you every morning and lie down next to you each night.
It was such a coincidence that we met that I believe it was destiny; both of us growing up so close to each other, yet meeting on the opposite side of the country. The fact that we aren’t together seems to have thrown the universe out of sync, but I have no one to blame but myself. It’s been a few years, and the effects of the medication I was taking have since faded, but even now I still feel the remorse over how I treated you and tossed you aside, when I should have spent every day telling you how important you are. I’ll never forget you, and I’ll cherish every memory of our time together.

Submitted by: D

I’m sorry that I hurt my only son’s feelings. I’m sorry I didn’t give him the respect and the freedom that he deserved… I am sorry he feels unloved and unappreciated — that could not be further from the truth. He is my only son,… my ‘suddenly-turning-into-a-man’ teenager, whom I have such a hard time relating to. I’m sorry I can’t make things right between us and I’m sorry he wants to be free of me. I wish he’d give me a second chance.

Submitted by: Heather

I left a good man for a bad man. The bad man made me crazy in bed but that’s all and not enough.Submitted by: Angel

I regret that you do not know you’re already free. I regret the distortions we all saddle ourselves with — that we are not this, not that, too fat, too thin, too old, too late, too bereft or unlucky. Can’t you be willing to belong first to yourself and then to everyone else and their judgments? Can you become wild and unpredictable in your self-love? Can you defy your most punishing instincts? If you could love you, make your own country, let some joy in, some silliness, something only about you, for you, no one else, then you would not fear me so, fear love, fear life. You would not need to hurt you and hurt me so. 

Submitted by: May