Something you said at 15 is still stuck in somebody’s head. Hope it was kind.

Other people are carrying lines of yours you have lost track of completely. Some landed as encouragement, some landed as a wound, and you were too young to know which was which. There is no way back to correct the record, and blaming yourself for a teenager’s careless mouth helps nobody.

What is still available is the present tense. Say the kind thing now, to the person in front of you, plainly enough to be remembered accurately. And if someone you were unkind to comes to mind, a short honest message years late still lands better than silence.