Saturday, August 28, 2004
You're who?
My cousin told me a story about a recent experience with a friend of her younger brother. It reminded me of a very similar incident I had a few weeks ago. I was visiting my younger brother and his wife and we had a little party. At the end of the evening people went downtown and a few of us stayed at the house to have a few more drinks. When the others arrived back at the house, a highschool friend of my brother came with them. I had just gone to bed, but came out and said hello and he told me he remembered me. I was fucking cluless as to who he was and simply told him I didn't know who he was. Well, he informed me that when I was in high school, I used to tease and pick on him with my friends. Still clueless as to who he was (I still can't remember his name) I said I was sure that we picked on all my brothers friends at one time or another and meant nothing by it. He scowled and told me that I had picked on him more than any of the others. That's the point at which two things happened, the first was that I decided that whoever this guy was, he was irritating me and was going to be picked on by my boot in his arse if he didn't shut up, and the second was that I told him it was really really nice to see him again and then I went back to bed. The other part of the story is that my sister in law had brought him back to the house to meet her friend, and I was already in bed with her when they arrived. So I got the last laugh, among other things he didn't get, but I still don't have a clue who he is. The moral of the story is that, just like my cousin and her younger brothers friend, I didn't know who the hell he was or how I had affected his life. The part that really made me think, is that in high school I was regarded by most people as the "nice, quiet, polite guy", so if I had been a "bad/mean/bullytype" person what a terrible impact I could have had on this guys life, without even knowing it. It just makes me think.