'You bullied me all the way through high school until I had to drop out,' the man wrote to his school bully.
Trigger warning: This story contains themes of suicide that some readers may find distressing.
Bullying is a serious issue since it leads to long-lasting childhood trauma that can affect mental health even in adulthood. The bitterness often doesn't leave a person decades after they face bullying, but getting closure is something that can help both parties heal. This is something that Palmer Michael (@sneakersandhobbes) experienced unexpectedly when he got in touch with his childhood bully on social media and received a surprising yet heartwarming response.
Michael often posts videos of his cats on his TikTok page, but in October 2023, he posted a heart-wrenching video that racked up over 3 million views. He recounted how he came across someone who brought back turbulent memories from the past while browsing his Facebook feed, back in 2013. One of his classmates in high school, Jeff, had shared a post about their friend Lisa Hicks. Jeff was the same person who had bullied Michael throughout his school years and so seeing his name naturally stirred up a lot of bitter emotions within him. It was then that he decided to send Jeff a letter.
In the following slides on TikTok, Michael shared the screengrabs of his interactions with Jeff via text messages. He started off by writing, “I am sure you remember who I am – Michael Stright,” and went on to add, “You bullied me all the way through high school until I had to drop out ‘cause you ended up in one of my classes in grade 12. I don’t know if you realize how much hell you and Andrew Crooks put me through.”
He added that back in those days, bullying wasn’t something that people paid much attention to, but now the scenario has changed. Michael wrote how “horrible memories of him teasing [Michael] day after day after day” haunted him to this day. Expressing his angst further, Michael told Jeff, “Did you know that I tried to commit suicide three times because of the s**t you put me through.”
“I am not looking for pity now that you’re older. I want you to go back in time and see who you were once to me.” He added that if Jeff had kids, then he hoped that they never had to go through bullying because it’s “horrible.” “I am sending you this message to bury the past once and for all. Confronting you after all these years feels good and I have finally said what I wanted to say to you so many years ago,” he concluded.
To his surprise, Jeff responded with an equally long message thanking Michael for writing to him. He asserted that whatever he did, his intentions weren’t malicious, however, that didn’t matter because his actions ended up hurting Michael, and “nobody deserves to feel like that.” In a dramatic twist, Jeff revealed that he himself contemplated suicide a couple of times and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety. He added that he was happy that Michael didn’t commit suicide because of an “insensitive classmate” that Jeff once was. “I was an idiot when I thought I was just being ‘cool,’” he confessed.
“I hope confronting me about this does make you feel better because you deserve that. I will never be able to apologize enough to undo the damage I did, but I will be grateful to you for having the courage to show me who I truly was,” Jeff wrote before admitting, “I am ashamed and disgusted at myself, I hope that you don’t encounter anyone else like me again.”
Touched to his core by Jeff's response, Michael replied wrote back, “Bullying has now been brought to light and it’s good to see that people now take it seriously,” before adding, “The fact that you wrote back to me really means the world to me.” “It takes a big person to admit mistakes they did in the past and to apologize for them,” he said. “I can’t thank you enough for writing me back.” Responding to Michael's video, their common friend Lisa (@lisajmelanson) commented, “I went to school with Michael and Jeff, both grew into the most amazing caring loving men and 2 of my favorite humans! Love you both, RIP Jeffy.”
The video also triggered emotional responses from across the globe, with many users sharing their own experiences with bullying. @thevintagewargamer professed, “That feeling of being bullied relentlessly has never left me, I'm 42 now. I cannot or will never forgive them. They took my formative years away.” @tracifunk942 told Michael that he was quite “brave” to send that message and that he was a special person to do that. @syvidalofficial said, “I’m so happy you received the closure you needed so badly; it sounds like he did too.”
You can follow Palmer Michael (@sneakersandhobbes) on TikTok for more heartwarming videos.
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