I had a crazy social experience Thursday night I was at a semi-professional gathering. Someone, I’ll call him Notable Writer (NW), walked up to me in front of several other people and said hi. Context: Our last interaction was several years ago, during the period I was (or perceived myself as) “very canceled,” - and from my perspective he was notably cruel to me. The following is mostly not direct quotes but is paraphrased, because I was overwhelmed while this conversation was happening and cannot remember exact details. NW: “Lydia I haven’t talked to you in years! Hi how are you” Me: “we haven’t talked in years because you were a giant asshole to me!” NW: “what?” Me: (literally shaking) “I can’t believe you’re even talking to me right now” (I don’t think I raised my voice, but the force of my anxiety and anger was so strong, it radiated off me. A couple of onlookers literally backed away and found something else to do) NW: “what? what are you talking about? When was I mean to you? Where? If it was public that doesn’t count. People argue in public all the time” Me: “what??? You were so mean to me - PRIVATELY! In Twitter DMs!! IT WAS MY LOWEST POINT AND YOU WERE SO MEAN TO ME” NW: “I don’t remember this at all” Me: “LOOK AT YOUR DMS THEN” NW: (looks at his DMs) NW: “… okay yeah I was mean. I’m sorry” Me: (in shock) NW: “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you like that. Honestly I was just scared of getting dragged into the situation you were in, so I pushed you away.” Me: “honestly that’s understandable! it was a very scary situation! I didn’t like being in it either.” NW: “I never said anything bad about you publicly, you know” Me: “I know. I really appreciate that.” (We hug) … Here’s what blows my mind about this. When NW and I had this interaction over DMs in 2024, I cycled on that interaction for days. Maybe weeks??? I felt SO HURT I was so hurt, it never even occurred to me that the interaction was unimportant to him. That he just… forgot I feel like there’s some Moral of the Story here about reconciliation but I’m not sure what it is 😹