Every day it’s the same thing. You’re walking toward someone, minding your own business and the oncoming pedestrian speaks an innocent “Excuse me,” you automatically say “Sorry,” and move out of the way. You go to the store and take a little longer to get money out of your wallet at the cash register with the cashier waiting impatiently. What little word comes out of your mouth? “Sorry.” You go to grab the same cup as someone at the cafeteria so you can get a drink. “Sorry.” Why did you apologize? You didn’t do anything wrong. But you still said you were sorry. Welcome to the lives of those of us who are overly apologetic.

For many of us, it’s practically a reflex; saying sorry when you don’t even have to. You have even apologized to inanimate objects. Yeah, that’s when you know you have an apologizing problem.

It happens to me every single day of my life. The worst is when someone tells you to stop apologizing, and then you feel obligated to say sorry for apologizing too much. Those of us who say sorry too often just hate to feel as though we have hurt others in our lives. Nothing bothers us more than having our friends or family members be mad at us. So, for those who do not apologize too often, please know that we are essentially just trying to keep you from getting angry.

For those like myself who ask for unnecessary forgiveness from our friends way too frequently, here is my advice for you: try to think of how often you really apologize, and realize that you shouldn’t just throw around the word “sorry.” One of the things that I try to tell myself is that apologizing should be done when it is absolutely necessary. It’s kind of like how people throw around the words “I love you.” Anymore, you hear people say the infamous/famous phrase that gets people in trouble all the time. The same is done with the word “sorry.” If you throw the word around too often, no one will take it seriously when you actually need it to mean something. And trust me, throughout my life, I have realized that the individuals who surround me don’t want to hear me apologizing pointlessly, and the people in your life probably don’t want to hear it either.

Overall, I know how difficult it is to stop apologizing. But, once you become conscious of it, it will become easier to control. Just know that you do not need to feel obligated to apologize for being you. So what if you accidentally got in the way of someone who politely excused you? So what if you were the one who took the last cookie and then had someone ask if there were any more? Save the regrets for the things that really matter, or for when you need to apologize to yourself. Remember that any sane individual would never get mad at you for the little things that you apologize for. And yes, you will actually have to sincerely say sorry someday if you already have not, and you will want that little word to mean something.