I'm sorry?

From the very beginning of our lives we are taught how to say "I'm sorry" and to reply "It's okay." Simply put we are trained to apologize and forgive...correct?

Story time:

Today I attended the Greek Festival with family, of course I had my fun and certainly ate a lot. Problems arose when my cousin and I were discussing zombie movies. The beginning of my problem was that my pants were beginning to fall (I wore a belt to try to correct the issue), in response I quickly grabbed my jean's belt loop but I carelessly neglected to put my cup (only ice inside) down. And spilled 2 maybe 3 ice cubes on the sidewalk.

I quickly noticed that an ice cube bounced and touched a woman on the backside of her jeans who was seated on the grass. She quickly turned at her friends and said "You got to be shitting me!". She turned my direction, I immediately said "I'm sorry, did one of my ice cubes hit you?". She responded in a scolding voice "YES, you got my whole arm wet!".

I responded again "I'm sorry." Her friends asked her what happened, she explained that I got her whole arm wet. She proceeded to make me look like a criminal to her friends, meanwhile I had gotten a napkin from my mom. I interrupted her and asked "Do you need a napkin?"(I was holding the napkin out to her with my arm). She refused my napkin and demanded why I got her wet. Again "I'm sorry it was an accident." She hastily turned to her friends and continued eating. (She never wiped her arm.) Believing that this fiasco was over, I turned to my cousin and we continued discussing zombie movies. Maybe 2 minutes later she turns around in my direction and yells (yes she literally yelled) in Spanish (what I believe she said in Spanish, I speak a little Spanish) "YOU WANT TO TALK WE'LL TALK!".

I was stunned but again I repeated "I'm sorry I got you wet.". Her friends looked at me and her and told us that its over stop. She proceeded to holler at me in Spanish (she talked to fast, I couldn't catch all the words.) In a act of good gesture I asked "Did I get your food wet, I'll pay to replace your meal." She paused to catch her breath and continued to insult me. I had reached my limit, I was so frustrated I screamed at her "WHAT DO YOU WANT?! I said I'm sorry! I offered to pay for your food and offered you a napkin, I cant do anything else!" She immediately stopped and turned away ending the fiasco.

This is not the only incident I can attest to witness to, although less dramatic I've seen other instances occur in my family, friends, and strangers.

Has saying "I'm sorry" lost it's meaning, did it ever have meaning or can you only meet anger with anger?

*I'm sorry, but I'm not that good at organizing posts.*
*Also my family was their, I excluded their voices because throught the whole thing they kept repeating "He said he's sorry", "It was an accident" etc.*

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Discuss/Share Experiences

The woman you encountered is a ridiculous excuse for a human being, unless of course something tragic recently happened in her life and she's on edge e.g. family member dying or something. I'm sorry you had to deal with that. From what I've read you seemed to be very willing to help her even though she was being quite the bitch. Good for you, though. You were trying very hard to still be a good person. :) I respect that.

I don't believe "I'm sorry" has lost it's meaning. Maybe for some people they can't accept "I'm sorry" and the only way for them to deal with their anger is to meet it with more anger. "I'm sorry" holds the most meaning when you hear someone say it sincerely. At least I think so.. Even little "I'm sorry"'s like saying it when you bump into someone means something to me. It's polite and it makes my day a little brighter to know that there are still people who care about little things like that.

Oh jeez.. am I not making sense? That happens too often.

By the way, that video reminds me of when my older sister and I were like a couple years back. We get along much better now, but it used to be like that all the time. It always made me sad because I wished we had a good relationship and all we did was yell at each other.

I think that some people can't accept "I'm sorry", or that they don't want to. Not accepting it would give them something and their friends to talk about. How boring would it be if she had just accepted the apology? I mean isn't as story or situation with WAY more drama more exciting to talk about? This is obviously subconscious, but nevertheless. Maybe she's just a jerk.

Shoulda punched her in the mouth.

Why do people always need a story? :( Personally, I'd much rather except reasonable apologies than reject them just to entertain myself and my friends. I have better ways to have fun with my friends. Y'know?

Yeah. It mystifies me as to why people can't think of better things to do with their friends. Or that their relationship with their "friends" is so shallow, that's all they CAN do.

Sorry about what happened to you you seem like a nice guy or girl,
but humanity will always have crazy and retarded people and we will never reach a better understanding of each other all we can do is try to make use of what time we have and try to make the world a better place.

It just makes me feel bad for people like that. I'm not saying I'm better than anyone, but when people have to be assholes to have fun with their friends.. it's just depressing. At least, that's just me. I always hate listening to judgmental people and being around people who just create rumors because they have nothing else to do! It just bothers me! Yes, everyone is judgmental to a degree, but most judgmental comments I have I try to keep to myself and ignore. I hate it when people feel the need to say every little bad thing that thought comes into their head! Like if you see someone dressed oddly, or an obese person, etc. is it NECESSARY to comment? Is it? What does that do? There's already enough bad in the world. Small efforts like that, I believe, can make a difference. Also, to the people who create rumors for fun, what's the point? Why do they find joy out of that? I just don't understand! I've never actually been a victim to rumors being spread about me, but just witnessing it makes me feel bad.

I probably went off topic. :( Sorry.

Maybe you triggered some of her unpleasant memory. It was an accident, its not like you mean it. Maybe she got prank when she's younger, during a sleepover, like people putting her hands on a glass of water to make her pee in bed. You know?

Terrible English..

Bah....that girl sounds like one hell of a princess who never been treated bad, making so much of a scene for something so little makes me quistion her life style or her motive.

You seem like one Goddamn GOod Guy, you performed much more patiance for that princess then me if I was in your shoes.


Ill just be fcking pissed already cz a few ice cubes manage to get her whole arm wet, fcking exagratting trying to make a scene out of a little problem, I believe she just took advantage of you for her play so that she could obtain another conversation topic for her friends.

Actions speak louder than words.

People are scared, and as you know...
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering" -Yoda

Or maybe she's interested in you? She's just looking for a way to talk lol.

You should've told her this

I have to disagree about it not making sense. The little things in life are more precious to me than anything in the world. That might not make sense... it's a bit vague.
Take for example when you sneeze, somebody responds with "bless you".
*I swear when I sneeze, it's like nothing happened. When somebody else sneezes everybody jumps at the opportunity to bless him/her. Lol they're probably out to get me.*
Another example would be "excuse me", it is one of the most over-used phrases that comes out of my mouth. Yet every time I use it, it holds more value than all of the sentences that I will say all day.

Whether she was on edge over specific reasons I'll never know, nevertheless I walked away feeling on top of the world. In all honesty I feel really sorry for her.

Sometimes it's simply better to say you're sorry once and then let go of the matter than to keep pestering your victim with canine apologies. Otherwise, you may come off as sycophantic and highly annoying.

Has little to do with "I'm sorry" losing its meaning, or people being less civil than in ages past, but everything with sensitivity.

What I bolded is the same for me.

I say "bless you" to everyone. Haha. This one time I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing and I heard someone sneeze and I said "bless you", but they were all the way across the hall talking to someone else and they looked at me strangely. People never used to say "bless you" to me because my sneezes sounded like coughs, but my sneezes are slowly learning what they are supposed to sound like. Like that! I just sneezed and it sounded mostly like a cough.

I also say "excuse me" a lot! Mostly when I'm walking and I pass too close to people and possibly bump into them, or I do really bump into them, etc. Most people I know don't say "excuse me" which is a shame.

You should've walked away feeling good. You were being a very nice person about the whole thing and you didn't do anything wrong. Personally, I would've felt sad for being attacked for no good reason, and for the fact that she's possibly just not a nice person. :(

I'm typically the person who says "I'm sorry" over every little damn thing.

Fpod sometimes gets annoyed with it because he feels I apologize over things that don't even need an apology.

That's just how I've been conditioned to think though. You upset someone, get in the way of someone, or do something on accident - you apologize.

I don't think the word has lost it's phrase, it's some mentality that people regard themselves as.

"How dare they do something to me"
The woman you spoke about did not care about you, or the ice - she just wanted to make a scene. Some women enjoy doing that, why - I don't know, but some women use drama as their means for oxygen.



I don't think the word has lost it's value at all still though. I mean, I'm offended when someone cuts me off or accidentally pushes me and doesn't care to apologize.

To me that means they're above me to waste their time with any apology.