Have you, or someone you’ve known, ever done something, or made a mistake, that affected the way that people looked at them permanently? How did that make you (or them) feel? Were you (or they) ever able to live it down? Did you (or they) learn from their mistake? If so, how do you know? If not, why didn’t they? Should people who make mistakes that hurt other people be easily forgiven? What do you think about the Marinere’s mistake?
This question is difficult. All of our decisions can change the way someone looks at us, but I suppose that you are more specifically looking at a major alteration in perception.
In high school I had a really close friend: Kyleigh. We had started hanging out with each other in middle school and by our senior year, we were inseparable. We didn't like the same music, we didn't like the same T.V. shows and we definitely had differing views on religion. Then, to add to our differences, she liked to smoke, drink and get tattoos. It is strange that we ever even started talking to each other, but I guess rejects in the school social network have to stick together.
There was a third unit to our friendship and her name was Becca. Kyleigh and Becca never really saw eye to eye, but they would hang out around me (I guess I was the tying bond). Becca had some major issues. She was a cutter, she had severe bipolarism, and there was a huge gap between herself and her mother. I've never had issues with any of those things... So, I guess it's weird that I was friends with her as well.
Toward the end of our senior year, Kyleigh and Becca started arguing with each othere. It was a never ending battle and I was the center piece. They would tell me all the things that the other person had done to them. In the end, realizing that I would never get peace without hurting one of them, I took a side. Kyleigh's side, to be specific. I had known Kyleigh for a LONG time. I knew she would never lie to me. I also knew that Becca could often exagerate to get people on her side (mostly because she liked to be in control). We graduated and Becca left, never to talk to me again.
During the summer after we had graduated, I found out ecaxtly how truthful Kyleigh had been to me. It turns out that almost everything she she had ever told me was a lie. In a week, a person that I thought I knew almost better than myself became a person I didn't even recognize. And, to top it all off, she had cost me a dear friend.
Her continual lies have cost her my trust and I never take anything she says to me without a grain of salt.
Has she learned a lesson from this? No. She's too good a lying to others and to herself to ever gain a lesson from that. And me? I've become more anti-social. I don't trust anyone to tell me the truth. At least, not right away. Friendship has to be earned, has to be proven.
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