Taylor Swift sings in a song thanking someone who bullied her,
“I can't forget the way you made me heal.”
If we choose to learn from what happened,
if we choose to grow from what happened,
if we choose not to be made bitter and awful
(choose “not be like our enemies,” as Marcus Aurelius wrote),
then maybe someday we can be grateful for this experience.
Someday we can understand that we wouldn’t have all of this
without any of that.
We can understand that they gave us something
when they took from us,
that they healed us when they hurt us.