For as long as I can remember, people have always called me out for one thing: always apologizing. They ask me why I always apologize, and most of the time, they tell me that there is nothing to apologize for.

People seem to think that my apologetic nature is a conscious choice. However, I do not think they realize that usually when I apologize, I do not even realize that I am doing it. I apologize out of habit, and for some reason, it seems to be something that I have a hard time controlling.

I cannot begin to tell you how the array of different things I apologize for when I shouldn't. I apologize when other people walk into me. I apologize for taking up space in a room. I apologize for not instantly answering my cell phone. And worst of all, I apologize for being myself.

I do not think that people understand that I genuinely am sorry for all of these things. Yet, usually, I impulsively apologize before I can think clearly enough to know if there was a reason for me to be saying sorry or not.

In all honesty, I don't know what to attribute my apologetic nature to.

Maybe it is because of my anxious personality.

Maybe this is my brain's way of making up for all of the apologizes I felt like I deserved but never received.

As you probably could have guessed, I take apologizing very seriously. No, I do not believe that a simple apology can fix everything that goes wrong, but I do believe that people should apologize when they hurt others around them or do something deemed worthy of an apology.

People should never make others feel bad about apologizing especially if it is a sincere apology and it comes from the heart. People have told me that I apologize so much that it has lost its meaning. Though, I understand where they are coming from when they say this, I do not think this makes my apologizes any less genuine.

Being as worrisome as I am, I get hurt easily. I overthink a lot of little things that most people tend to overlook. More often than not, people fail to realize how much their words and actions really impact me. However, this is probably because I choose to not say anything when I feel hurt.

Instead, I find myself apologizing for little things. I apologize for the things that would hurt me if they had been done to me, knowing that others overlook these little things.

In my opinion, the worst part of being as apologetic as I am all the time is that I always seem to apologize when other people hurt me. I don't know why it is but I often find myself apologizing for things that I later realized that I should not have said sorry for.

As I said before, realizing that I don't have to be sorry when I thinking clearly does not stop me from apologizing. I wish people could understand that constantly feeling sorry does not make my apologies less sincere. If only people didn't underestimate the power of a genuine apology and changed behavior.