To the kid who has quite a lot to say about me.

Dear you,

I am very aware you do not like me. Aside from the fact that you've told just about everyone how much you hate me, the way you look at me in passing speaks volumes. Not that you were trying to be subtle but the rolling your eyes or scoffing at everything I do never went unnoticed. You've said how you don't like my hair or my laugh, that I'm too annoying, or too loud. You've gone far enough to call me a mistake, a waste of space. You've gone to quite great extent to make it clear, I am of no worth to you. Which must be untrue since I stay as your favorite topic of conversation.

If I'm really so irrelevant, why does my name keep coming out of your mouth?

But that's not the point I came to make. I came to say, without you apologizing I forgive you. I forgive you for spreading rumors about me and alienating me from my friends out of the sole pleasure of watching me get upset. I forgive you for laughing when you finally saw me get upset. I forgive you for never hearing my side of the story on anything and assuming the worst of me possible. I forgive you for making it hard to go to places that were once my favorite because I feared you being there. I forgive you for being so down right nasty to me that I questioned everything about myself. I forgive you for acting like a child because it made me grow as an adult. I choose to forgive you because my mother taught me that not everyone's going to like me. When you're true to yourself, someone's not going to like you.

I'm surprised it ended up being you considering at one point we were friends. Not everyone can root for the home team. At the end of the day I like me, whether or not you do is not really my issue. The only person getting hurt here is you, for you choosing to hold on to that animosity for me will only burn you. It does cross my mind occasionally, how you must get tired always having to be mad at me or play off that you don't care that I exist then it's quite obvious you do. I don't remember what we fought about in the first place. I have nothing but kind things to say about you and when people ask, I will gladly smile and tell them of someone I used to be friends with. You're not a bad person at all; pretty, yes. But not a bad person. I know when people ask about me you say some nasty things. That's ok. I can forgive that too. My reputation with my friends and those I love will not change, the person you make me out to be is so far from the truth that it only makes you look bad. To go to such great lengths to make someone unhappy is more of a sign that you have nothing better to do. It only makes you look bad. But it's your life, do as you please.

I guess I had hoped you'd grow up and we could put this past us, but I think we're too deep for that now.

I bet those jokes were funny. Ya know all the ones you made about all the things I told you when we were friends? I bet they were funny. But after awhile being "salty" or "a savage" turns into looking like a child throwing a temper tantrum.

So to the person who has quite a lot to say about me, I guess I have a lot to say too. I choose not to speak ill of you, and I forgive that you don't make the same choice. I hope when you realize how truly awful what you've done is, you can forgive yourself too. Thank you for being the lesson I needed on who not be.

Yours,

Your favorite person to talk about