The Art of Apology

Being a teenage male, I tend to act in ways that others may occasionally find offensive, idiotic, and otherwise unpleasing. Generally, I have no preference to how others view me, as I do not interact with them. This proves wrong however, when I feel that I have wronged someone that I usually interact with. If I do not normally interact with a person, then I would either find no reason why I should apologize, or I would not follow through with actions towards them that would require apology. This is not the case with someone who I would normally interact with who I have offended. Being “uneducated” in this art of apology, I chose to delve into the areas of my mind in order to attempt to understand this concept of apology. This was quite difficult, as normally I believe my actions towards people is generally justified, being whether I interact with them on a regular basis or don’t.

Upon thinking of this problem of apologizing, I first looked at how should go about actually apologizing. Is it enough to simply admit that one was wrong? Or does someone have to go and actually admit that the other person was right? Or is there even a difference in the two actions. This was only the first problem that arose with facing apology however. While I believe that I have done nothing wrong, generally something has been done, in the public eyes, wrong. This then points as to whether there was wronging from both parties, or if one party was more wrong than the other, another though that baffles me. If an action is wrong, can it’s level of wrongness be quantified? Are there levels of wrong that some actions do not reach, while others do?

The next question that I faced was how to approach the person that I feel I need to apologize to. Generally, if someone is angry or offended enough to want or need an apology, then that person may not want to be in your company, and may also not want to even talk to you. This faces another problem, as from what I understand about apologies, they require actually communicating to a person. Is it better to “force” and encounter, or to wait until tensions between both parties have cooled down to the point where communications are actually feasible. there are not only these, but if it a person who is normally interacted with, wouldn’t said person probably have a time when seeing them would be normal. Would it be times like this when actually apologizing would be ideal?

Overall,  this travel changed me, and made me go through thought wrenching hours of agonizing thought, but the end  result of keeping a friend was well worth it.