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It’s easy to hold on to old grudges, especially when someone has made your life hell for years…but is that the right thing to do? One Redditor After refusing to donate to a fundraiser for his childhood bully’s cancer treatment, he now wonders if he made a mistake.
User @Quirky-Importance-81 tapped into the infamous /AmITheAsshole Subreddit to seek unbiased insight into emotional situations. Apparently, my former classmate Brad, 26M, has been diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and his family is raising his $50,000 on his GoFundMe to help pay for his treatment. ‘, he explained.
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma is a Serious Cancer: 2023, American Cancer Society Estimate About 80,000 people are infected and more than 20,000 die. So yeah, Brad’s diagnosis is devastating news.
“Brad treated me like shit in high school,” the Redditor recalled. “He was always making fun of my weight and calling me obnoxious nicknames. I can’t say that I felt great when I learned of his diagnosis, but I didn’t shed any tears either.”
The drama began when a GoFundMe for Ben’s cancer treatment went to Anna, one of @Quirky-Importance-81’s former classmates. She added him and many others to her group chat and asked everyone to “Donate whatever you can, even if it’s a small amount.”
She also told everyone to give her message a thumbs up when donating. @Quirky-Importance-81 didn’t feel comfortable donating to a childhood bully.
“Almost everyone in the group donated, except me,” he explained. “Anna noticed this and she tagged me and asked if I had seen her message. At the time, I wrote that I was not going to donate because of the way Brad treated me in high school. Anna and some other guys said I was acting like an asshole.
A Redditor has left the group to avoid an argument with everyone. “None of them stood up to me when Brad was bullying me, and most laughed at his silly joke. ‘So, AITA here?’
In general, the AITA Redditors in the comments section were on his side. Bullying really sucks, and it’s perfectly valid to not allow someone to mock you over time.
“NTA,” wrote one commenter. “It may be in the past, but that doesn’t mean you have to get over it or forgive him.”
Some people took issue with @Quirky-Importance-81’s dramatic departure from group chats. But most commenters were more concerned with Anna’s pretentious demeanor.
“This is not how these work,” wrote one particularly surprised commenter. “We create GoFundMes so that people can help if they feel called out, not to shake everyone we’ve ever known.Fuck them all. Don’t give them a cent or another thought. ”
“National Tax Agency, [you] Perhaps we should have just ignored it instead of getting involved,” someone else opined.
“You don’t have to donate, but living with the bitterness you feel from this person will affect you even more. [anything] Otherwise,” advised another commenter. “Come as far as you can forgive them. You don’t have to trust them, but you don’t have to carry it around forever.”
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