Who in the world is universally loved? Can someone really be such? Probably Sir David Attenborough, but other than him, I can’t think of anyone who is universally liked. Most people have flaws that are unbearable to others. That is the nature of the world.

Why am I writing about this? Because I am, according to some bloke I went to primary school with, a twat. Now, I don’t have some unassailable ego that means people can’t criticise me, and I am certainly not stupid enough to think that everyone I meet likes me. But this came somewhat out of the blue. And as opposed to maybe just de-friending me, he felt the need to post some final insult on my Facebook wall before he did it. I would be lying if I said it didn’t upset me. In fact, it has cast a cloud over the entire weekend. I tried to let it go, but I just couldn’t.

As my head of department kindly pointed out on the same day, I am a bit of a Marmite style character. Which again, is fine, but something about this other comment really annoyed me.

I tried to think of what it was that annoyed him. What part of my life was so at odds with his that he felt, rather than just keep his opinion to himself, he felt the need to say what he did. It isn’t like the insult is even that harsh, I mean my friends and I call each other far worse. But I think the reason it is annoying me is that it came out of the blue, and was unprovoked.

I recall that when I was at a low ebb, I noticed that was when I painted pictures. So I did a little facebook update that said I seemed most productive when I felt sad. To which he posted something about me being a knob. So when someone is at a low point in their lives, this guy feels the need to be horrible to them. Wow! In the douchebag world cup, this guy would be a serious contender.  I deleted that post, and stopped his stuff appearing on my wall. There, not so hard. I had been bored to death of his relentless photos of him being drunk in Bali or Australia or something. I didn’t at any point feel the need to go onto his wall and say something like get a life you massive loser, because why would I? It is none of my business that he wishes to piss his life away and achieve nothing. At the end of the day, my opinion counts squat to him, that is why it was so easy for him to be a knob.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to reply and say some massively hurtful things back. If being bullied as a kid taught me anything, it was that if I wanted to, I could have torn him asunder with nastiness. But I did what my mum taught me and I turned the other cheek.  I could have posted something on his wall, I could have sent him an email and been equally horrible back to him, but I didn’t. I blocked him totally from appearing on Facebook. I didn’t even report it as abuse, because what would that achieve? Nothing. It would show that his spiteful words had got to me. I suppose the closest I could get to some catharsis is this blog, and in a way it shows that he has gotten to me. I want to be the big man, but I can’t. I want to write who he is so people know what a small minded, hateful little turd he is, but that is not how to deal with this. The way to deal with this is to go out, carry on trying to achieve something with my life, and hope that at some point I have a platform far greater than Facebook where I can call him a massive tosser!

Never let it be said that I can’t hold a grudge.

- Anand