We all make mistakes, and the best thing we could ever hope for doing someone wrong is for them to forgive and forget.
However, that's easier said than done for some people who can hold a grudge against someone. This lingering resentment can destroy friendships and relationships or ultimately lead to self-destruction without a resolution.
People shared the intense feeling they can't seem to ever let go of when Redditor PatriarchBalthazarthazar asked strangers online:
"What are you still angry about all these years later?"
The academic world can breed a lot of not-so-fond memories.
A Pretentious Equation
"The math teachers who acted like if I didn’t get it immediately, I was too stupid to ever get it."
– belledamesans-merci
"Hey, same! I got through school thinking I just wasn’t a math person, and I always felt so stupid because I just couldn’t make sense out of a lot of things. It suddenly kind of just clicked when I got to calculus in college, and I realized I’m actually pretty good at it—just not at remembering 'tricks' and 'shortcuts' that we were taught in K-12 math."
"For example, when dividing fractions, it made no sense to me that you 'flipped' the second one and multiplied, but when I realized that mathematically, we were multiplying by the reciprocal of the second fraction because it was on the bottom of a division bar, it made complete sense."
"Ironically, I grew up to become a math teacher, and I work super hard to ensure my students know they can do math. They just have to be taught in a way that makes sense to them, and that can look different for different people!"
– Guerilla_Physicist
Murder For Fun
"In my college dorm we played a game called killer. Around 100 people were given assignments to 'kill' another person in the group by placing a sticky note on them. Once you 'killed' someone you then took up their assignment. The game ends when only 1 person remains."
"About a month into the game I had 'killed' 5 people, less than 10 people were remaining, and I had no idea who was assigned to kill me."
"One day I was studying in my room which is a safe haven and I heard a knock on my door. It was my neighbor with his girlfriend and her friend. My neighbor said that his key had gotten stuck in his lock and asked if I had pliers to yank it out."
"I did so I gave them to him and followed him out the door to help out. As soon as I stepped out of the room, his girlfriend’s friend stuck a sticky note on my arm 'killing' me."
"That bastard set me up, and I’ll never forgive him."
– dring157
Prize Never Won
"Never getting my lunch with the governor after winning the DARE contest for my school. F'k you, George Ryan."
– jearley3
Obstinate Professor
"My high school English teacher had a quiz and asked what’s the difference between adjectives and adverbs, and my answer was 'adjectives modify nouns, while adverbs modify verbs/adjectives.' "
"I got a 9 out of 10 for that. His answer was 'words that end in -ly'. He graduated from Harvard and didn’t like being corrected. I was annoyed that my more accurate answer scored lower than his stupid answer."
"This was 20 years ago."
– Lurofan
Kids Are So Mean
"How people treated me in middle school and all the horrible rumors about me in high school."
"And I wouldn’t particularly say angry but I’m definitely still a little salty about it. Like to the point I don’t see or talk to any of them; which is easy because I don’t have social media besides Reddit."
"Only downside is I would like to catch up with a select few that were good to me, but I don’t know how I would do that because I don’t have social media."
– TX_Peach_Cobbler
Left Out
"Missing field day in the 6th grade. In honor of the Olympics, my elementary school did an all-day field day with games and competitions. It was just supposed to be a super fun time."
"My homeroom teacher was behind on a bunch of busy work, so she selected 5 students (myself included) to go to an empty room to do various paperwork tasks."
"IT TOOK US ALL DAY, AND SHE TOLD US WE COULD NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE FUN STUFF UNTIL ALL THE WORK WAS DONE."
"I begged her to be allowed to go to the competitions. I practiced running and long jumping, and I have been looking forward to it for 3 weeks. By the time we finished and were allowed to go, our grade level finished, and everyone was returning to their rooms."
"I cried for days. I was 12. I'm 40 and this memory still makes me extremely passed and devastatingly sad."
– SassyCatLady442
These Redditors will never forgive these unfortunate circumstances.
The Mouse Cleaned House
"Being fired by Disney during the pandemic along with 30,000+ other employees, then the executives giving themselves a fat bonus, then when my old job was reopened, I had to re-apply, interviewed, and lost it to someone with zero experience. I had over 20 years of experience in my very niche field."
– ghettopaint
Time Slip
"My sister stole my dad's watch from his dead body. A watch my mom and I bought him when, for the first time in his entire life, he asked for it. My mom wanted it, the only thing he ever asked of her."
"Sister denied it and I let it go, because I didn't want to sour an already terrible moment in our lives and told my mom it was unfortunately lost during transport."
"But it still BURNS."
– IamGabyGroot
It's Just Like Gran
"My grandmother blaming me for the nails in her tire. I was f'king 6 and she lives in the middle of nowhere! It was like, 25 f'king years ago and I will never forget the scolding I from her for it. F'king psycho."
– loasiaronis
The Worst Bully
"When I was 12 years old my 'friend' came to my house. She bet me that I couldn’t fit into a kennel that we had in my room for a new puppy we just got. I crawled in to show her I could do it and she proceeded to shut me in and I can’t remember how but she made it so I could not get out."
"At first I thought haha, seriously let me out. Then she ran over and grabbed my diary that I told her she couldn’t read and proceeded to read everything out load while laughing."
"I went from complete panic trying to get out to being defeated, bent over and sobbing while she read what I wrote about recently loosing my childhood dog we had since I was born all while reading in a mocking voice laughing."
"I never told anyone. Just wanted everyone to f'k off. Realized that day some people are truly heartless."
"If any good came out of that situation is that I have tried my very best at being really attentive with my kids after school, after play dates, anything. Growing up is so freaking painful at times. What they deal with on a day-to-day basis is a million times more exhausting than what I deal with as an adult. I don’t think enough people realize how much is coming at them."
"Wow I have been sobbing while writing all that. Thanks, Reddit, for letting me get that off my chest."
– Masterofthemallow
Secret Satan
"We did secret Santa at work. You pick names out of a hat and get your colleague a gift but they don't know who from. It was only £5 spending limit. I got a box of chocolates for 5 and donated 5 for charity on his behalf."
"You get a voucher saying you have been gifted 5 pounds which will be used to buy books for children Africa or something like that. So I spent double."
"Anyway this idiot I gave the present to somehow spent all day investigating who got what present and managed to figure out I was his secret Santa. He came over to my desk, threw the voucher at me and said 'I don't do charity' and walked off. I mean wtf?"
– Happy5Day
Unforgiveable
"My uncle who stole tens of thousands from my grandmother when she was dying of cancer."
"My son’s first pediatrician who missed his congenital cataract (it wasn’t discovered until he was almost 4 - he still has effectively no vision in that eye despite years of attempts because his brain just ignored the signal)."
"Most everything else is just water under the bridge."
– Gamecat235
Stolen Love
"My first proper crush who I was full on in love with and I think he liked me back, he’d always be around me hug me from behind always ask about my interests and what he wants to do in the future and we would chat about that etc!"
"And I told someone who I thought was a trusted friend, but nope, she asked him out a few days later and started dating him!!! My other friends pulled me aside and told me, and I just cried."
– Hungry_Cookie_3574
I've learned to let go of the things that perpetually angered me. Festering resentment grows, and it's never good for anyone's well-being.
Of course, this is difficult to accomplish, but once you learn to let go of the anger, there is peace.
