The Confessions

"I lent money to a friend knowing I needed it back within six months. When six months came I told them there was no rush. I genuinely could not face the conversation. I spent the next year quietly struggling while they spent the money on a holiday."

"I cancelled plans with a friend who I knew was going through a difficult time because I simply did not have the emotional energy. I said I was unwell. She said she understood. She was dealing with something serious and I chose comfort over showing up."

"Six months ago I confessed here about the years I lost to drinking. Today I am celebrating three years without a drink. I do not know if confessing here was the turning point but it was part of the turning. Thank you to everyone who sent karma. You helped more than you know."

"I told my children their grandfather was a good man when he was not. I wanted to protect them from a complicated truth. Now they are adults and I wonder if I should have let them form their own view. I took that from them."

"I told my girlfriend I had never been in love before I met her. The truth is I was completely broken by someone else two years before and I have never fully recovered. She thinks she is healing someone whole. She is healing someone in pieces."

"I never said I love you back to someone who said it to me because I panicked. They laughed it off. We never spoke of it again. We are friends still. But something shifted that day and I think we both know it."

"I pretended not to see an elderly woman struggling with her shopping on a bus. I was tired and did not want to give up my seat. Someone else got up eventually. She thanked them warmly. I sat there for six more stops feeling like the worst person on the bus."

"I have had thoughts about people I love that I would never in a million years act on but that frightened me with their vividness. I understand now that thoughts are not intentions. But for a long time I believed having the thought made me monstrous."

"I have always been my parents favourite and my brother knows it. I never did anything to change that dynamic. I just quietly accepted the better treatment and told myself it was not my fault. He grew up feeling second. That was partly my fault."

"I wrote here about a teacher I never thanked. I found the school and wrote her a letter by hand. Three weeks later I received one back. She remembered me. She said my letter had made her year. It made mine too."