How to Accept an Apology

Learn to let someone feel the impact of their actions.

I finally decided to take the leap.

Sell off all my things, end my lease, and become a digital nomad.

I applied for a Visa, found an apartment in Bali, and starting making plans to spend the next 9 months abroad.

One small problem: my beloved dog. Bali does not allow foreign dogs in.

Thankfully, I have wonderful friends who agreed to watch her while I got settled in my new country.

They were coming to bring her back to New Jersey and I needed to get her licensing paperwork squared away before handing her off.

In a rush, I ran downstairs to my Mom’s office asking if she could print out a form I needed. She was housing my dog and I in between my lease ending and my flight.

I urgently instructed her to Google the name of the form I needed but she started on the city homepage and clicked through until she found the department and the consequencing form.

This infuriated me. Simply Googling the name of the form would have taken us to the page in an instant. She insisted on finding it the old-fashioned way, the way she knew how.

After we exchanged a few heated, angry words the form got printed and I ran out the door to the clerk’s office before they took their lunch break.

Reflecting on my drive back and our argument yes, I had selfishly interrupted her and expected her to drop everything for my own need. A need that I had put off until the very last minute requiring her to get swept up in my urgency and poor planning. She, however, didn’t have to be quite so nasty but I also understood. I knew our fight wasn’t the end of the world but it was still disappointing, my Mom and I have done a lot of work on our relationship over the past two years.

I got a text from her as I was getting close to home that said “I’m sorry for being such a jerk earlier. I love you.”

I was taken aback. I felt I had been in the wrong, barging into her office like that. I was shouldering most of the responsibility in my head.

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