Care to elaborate on that? Or are you just leaving us with that pearl of wisdom?
BurningRiver
The ginger nonce thinking he can determine what child abuse is.
I just wanted to reinforce my opinion that you can (and I have) absolutely become a better person and left the shitty version of myself behind.
If you’re set on being a better person than you were before, then you’re progressing. There’s a quote attributed to Plato, and I don’t know if he actually said this or not. I think this rings true no matter what though.
“Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow”
Keep being better and you’ll get through the guilt of who you may have been before. Be a voice for those you may have slighted earlier in life. It gets easier as time goes on, I can promise you it does from personal experience.
I grew up in a racist household hearing some truly awful things, and parroted the vile shit I heard from my dad. I was a late teenager before I realized how fucked up my family actually was.
So pardon me if I completely disagree with you that I’m not “less terrible” than I was 30-40 years ago. The person I was back then is long dead.
I’m a terrible person, I know
I think that people can evolve as they mature. Recognizing that you don’t like the person that you used to be and taking steps to be a better person doesn’t make you a terrible person at all.
I also did and said a bunch of things in my teens that I abhor and regret as an adult, but I think that I grew into a respectable person and speak out against the very things I have said as a child.
Not too far into my first campaign, I was playing a Hexblade warlock with a level of sorcerer for some extra spell slots / CC spells. We get ambushed by some bad guy guards trying to rob us. As they’re stalking us in the bazaar we were shopping in, the initiative rolls begin out of nowhere.
Roll a nat 20 for initiative, and end up going first. I cast grease and catch them all in it. 4/5 guards fail the save and fall prone. The 5th guard goes second and shoots an arrow at me, does a few damage. I react with hellish rebuke. It ends up engulfing all of the guards, the hay cart next to them, and half the bazaar into a raging grease fire inferno.
I learned to be more aware of my surroundings after that day.