Social Media, Old Friends, and Burning Bridges

Ridding yourself of things that have no further use in your life includes people.

A woman who used to be one of my best friends in SC just contacted me through Google+ saying she wanted to "catch up." Here's the problem; she stopped speaking to me for a totally insane reason over 20 years ago, and rebuffed all my efforts at reconciliation. After she stopped speaking to me, she
called my mother and told her that she and her husband were only friends with me because they "felt sorry" for me.  I saw her right before I left SC in WalMart or Target or somewhere like that, and tried to speak to her, because I don't like to hold grudges, and she was a friend at one time. She snottily said that she had nothing to say to me. So be it.

To be honest, I had forgotten all about her. She has truly not crossed my mind one time since I left SC, nor has her drunken husband, her bitchy sister or her money-mad brother. Some people just are not worth the space they take up in your brain.

Well, I was NOT kind in my reply to her private G+ message, just like she was not kind to me in that store so many years ago. In fact, I reminded her of that time and used some words I try not to use online. And I meant every word. Now maybe she will know how it feels to want to reconcile with someone and have them spit in your face. 

I have not had one single person from my past who has found me on social media who I actually wanted to have any contact with. Well, I did try to reconcile with my niece, but that turned out to prove to me that I was right when I thought I shouldn't let her back into my life. There have been, I think, seven people who have "found" me through FB or G+ and one who found me on Yahoo Voices. All of them treated me like crap when they knew me, so why would they think that 20 years is going to change my not wanting to talk to them?

Some will say, "You need to forgive." I have forgiven, but my mother told me to forgive, but never forget, because if you do, they'll do it to you again. I learned that lesson with my niece. I don't see any need to relearn it.

There's a reason -- well, a lot of reasons -- why I left SC and never go back since my mother died. The people and reasons I now live in FL away from the place I was born and raised need to stay there -- dead, buried and forgotten.