The gift, what would yours be?

Former Member

Hey :wave:

So I'm sat watching the gift tonight on TV for those who've never watched it, its about people finding someone they want to either say thank you to or sorry to and with help they find this person and hopefully meet.....

One of the people tonight was a man who was the school bully, and he wants to find the man who he bullied throughout his school life.

I wondered what people think of this? The idea of saying sorry to that person who you possible bullied throughout life or hurt on a one off or something else. Another thing which struck me was the bully was the one who wanted to say sorry, it was him who after so long wanted to be brave and find this person he bullied.

Would you ever have the guts to go find that person you were mean to and apologise even after 15 years?

Who would you say sorry to and why?
Who would you thank and why?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b052sqm5/the-gift-episode-1 this is the link to the first episode!

plugitin

I caught some bits of it and it all seemed a bit staged. Personally, if one of the people who had bullied me at school came to me years later, I'd be more angry and probably wouldn't want to meet them as I'd have spent all those years overcoming what they did to me. I think they guy they were trying to find who was bullied was right in saying that he doesn't have to accept the apology from that man. I dunno, I just didn't think the bully had much right to be desperate to apologise. But what do I know.

Former Member

plugitin wrote: »

I caught some bits of it and it all seemed a bit staged. Personally, if one of the people who had bullied me at school came to me years later, I'd be more angry and probably wouldn't want to meet them as I'd have spent all those years overcoming what they did to me. I think they guy they were trying to find who was bullied was right in saying that he doesn't have to accept the apology from that man. I dunno, I just didn't think the bully had much right to be desperate to apologise. But what do I know.

I completely agree with this, I thought to myself while watching it if some of the people who have bullied me came to me in 15 years time to apologise I don't think I could forgive them, not fully anyway. I'd accept the apology but like you said 'id have spent all those years overcoming what they did to me' is completely true! Could you really forgive someone after the pain they caused can still be felt at times after so long!

Former Member

It's an interesting one. Personally haven't watched it because I cannot stand Matt Baker and that is not something I will apologise for.

When I was in senior school, I was painfully shy. The sheer nature of being a teenager is survival of the fittest and in terms of school, I was not the fittest. I think the term "bullying" can be thrown around very quickly and easily and I don't regard what happened to me during school as serious bullying and subsequent events have had more of an impact. Do I want the popular group of girls, who all had ponies because they just asked daddy, to apologise for tripping me up in the lunch hall or the quiet comments they made? No, I couldn't care less.

But would I like an apology from every single person who doubted me? Yes. That has affected me far more and probably will for years to come. An apology doesn't make it better, but it's acknowledgement of how badly and negatively someone has impacted on another person's life.