If you were a mean person in highschool, why'd you do it and do you regret it?

More middle school than high school and I wouldn’t classify myself as “the” mean person, but I definitely think i was not very nice to people at times. Or at least, I could have been kinder.

But equally people weren’t nice to me either. Not trying to justify it, but it was very much a fight for survival and you had to play the game otherwise you’d be next. I regret not having more courage to stand up for myself and do what I felt was right. I absolutely hated how judgemental everyone was (including myself) - most of the time it was completely pointless stuff I didn’t even feel strongly about. So as an adult i try and be more mindful of that and not to default to criticising or making fun of people - it’s the easy way out.

/r/AskReddit Thread