I’ve done alot of mischievous and unkind things throughout my education time (k-12) I made fun of people, bullied people, stole from people/stores, hit people, kicked people, did things to annoy people, and just overall did stupid shit to cause problems all because it either felt cool or because I thought it was funny. Some of these were things I did because my friends did them, but some were just me being stupid on my own. I am now 21 and recently I have thought about all of this and feel awful about the things I’ve done because I know it has affected people. I wish I could go back and have never done any of it. Is something wrong with me? Am I a bad person?
You stopped being a bad person when you grew sufficient empathy to feel bad about what you did.
But your debt is not paid.
Consider the bad person you no longer are as though they were a dependent in your charge. Everything they did is, rightly, an embarrassment of who you presently are.
You will continue to be a good person as long as you work to make up for the things that your past self did.
Not out of guilt, though:
Out of gratitude that you’re no longer that person.You’re looking for validation in a web forum. Independently of what you did or didn’t, go talk to a therapist and work on this need for validation from others.
Also, if you felt what you did is wrong, don’t do it again. There’s nothing you can do about your past.
Every morning we wake up with the ability to change who we are and how we act and react.
If you’re sincere, you’ll use that to improve who you are tomorrow.
If you’re truly sorry, you’ll do something extra to help others in some way and address the karma imbalance you’ve caused. Apologise to those people you hurt. (Trust me, it will mean something to them) Find ways to help others survive bullying. Make anonymous donations to the places you stole goods from.
It sounds like you had a lot of bad behavior, but are not a bad person. Time will tell. Keep choosing to do good.
Being able to acknowledge you did something wrong is a good first step. The next step would be to try to make it right as much as possible. Most people will likely have forgotten all about it though, unless you were a particularly egregious asshole. If you feel you wronged someone in the past, you can reach out to them and get their perspective. If they feel the same you can apologise and try to make right any lasting damage you caused.
If you really want to dig deep about this, go to therapy. It is incredibly helpful for complex issues of self.
Something that was said to me long ago by somebody I admired when I was a fuckwit teenager, “if you’re not embarrassed of the person you were last year, you’re not growing enough.” That has stuck with me for decades, I find it still applies and I’m scared of when I could realize it doesn’t.
No, it means you are responsible enough to look back and realize what you want to change in life. A bad person wouldn’t understand that they did anything wrong. Also, we’ve all did mischievous things when we were young .
Did you also kick people for fun?
No, but refusing to reflect and mature would make you a bad person. We are glad to have you :)
It sounds like you were a bad kid, but maybe you won’t necessarily be a bad adult given this introspection. Something to bear in mind is that kids’ brains and minds aren’t entirely developed, often causing that kind of bad behavior- maturity is a real thing, and it sounds like you’ve begun developing it.
I think most people have things they regret from childhood and teenage years. I suppose the key is to be self aware and try to live in line with who you want to be as an adult.
Its important to note that maturity doesnt automatically come with the brain fully developing. The brain being developed is a requirement for maturity though.
I didn’t need “maturity” not to bully, bash, break stuff as kid, did you? This maturity angle does not hold water.
You were lucky to grow up in an environment not triggering your natural human evil.
The main reason I didn’t bully anyone was because I was bullied myself.
Ya
Most people that are bad people don’t think they are badly people. You did something stupid shit as a kid abd put a lot of bad karma in the world. Try your best to put some good in the world’s to make up for it. It’s all you can do.
Doing those things didn’t make you and bad person.
Being a bad person made you do those things.
Change the person that you are, and you won’t have more of these regrets in the future.
Yea you’re a PoS, I don’t think “realizing” it changes that. When else are you going to be close to so many other people in a way you can positively impact their life?
Just kidding, I wouldn’t stress about it. Kids are dumb, you grew up, be better
Are you sure you’re kidding? Lmao
Of course they are kidding. People change, you can be a POS earlier and change to not be one now.
It means you were a bad person, most kids are, that’s why we train them. You choose if you’re a bad person today. I would suggest apologizing to those you wronged in ways that still affect them (prolonged bullying, stealing that significantly ruined a business, hitting that caused long term physical or emotional damage etc). An apology is more than just words, and it won’t always make you feel better. This self reflection is good and healthy.
