I've always been a big enough man to apologize when I feel I've wronged somebody. A few years ago I had a falling out with a friend I'd known since I was just a child. It wasn't necessarily the issue we were arguing over that caused the falling out, more the way that things were handled. It was indeed I who initiated the situation, though I tried to handle it differently. For a few days after the incident, I felt terrible about the way things happened - I knew they should have gone differently. So the next time I saw my now former friend, I walked up to him and I apologized. I told him that I felt terrible for the way things went down and I wished they'd gone differently. He, justifiably, brushed off my apology, telling me, "it still happened." He was right. The damage had been done.
In the time since that unpleasant incident, he's forgiven other mutual friends for far worse things than what I'd done - at least, far worse things in my perception of them, though he's made no attempt to reconcile with me. Mutual friends have expressed interest in attempting to help us patch things up, but perhaps things are too far gone.
Recent events have led to me looking my former friend up on MySpace, where I learned that he will be graduating from college this Wednesday. He's invited anybody to his graduation, provided they contact him and let them know. I'm considering asking one of our mutual friends if they are planning to go, and if so, if I might be able to tag along. I figure, even if he's still holding a grudge against me, I'm proud of my childhood friend for doing something I never did, and I can at least offer him my congratulations. Whether he accepts it or not, that's another story.
So tell me, what would you do in my situation - would you try to go to the graduation, or keep being a stubborn bastard with the "I apologized to him, he can come to me" attitude I've held for years?
