This is my story where Sorry saved the situation

Hello everyone On this occasion I want to participate in a contest held by @ngoenyi
about Contest Alert: Tell your story - Sorry! A Word That Unites following my previous entry I would like to invite my friends @bossj23 , @deetalka6 and @basil20 to participate in this contest

A few years ago, I experienced an incident that taught me how valuable one simple word is: "sorry". It happened when I was still active in an online writing community. I was working with 1-2 other guys on a small team that was doing weekly side-project rotations. One of my closest colleagues, who I will call Rina, was a really thorough person and she had high standards for what we put into the world.

We were up for a writing deadline that needed to be turned in at 10 p.m. or something one evening. I hadn’t finished the part I was planning on sending because I was busy with my day job. I sent it without confirming, as it was already late for the deadline by a few minutes. It ended that my writing made Rina do twice the work to put it together and match the lines to the other pieces. She was disappointed, and the next day she posted a criticism in the group in a very pointed voice.

At first, I was annoyed, even wanted to write her back. But as I reread what she had written, I came to see it: it was my fault after all. I was unprofessional to the point I did not honor other people’s time. So I messaged her privately. The text was short: “Rina, I’m sorry. I was really dumb and didn't understand teamwork. You took my load that night.

Rina’s response was not far behind. "Thank you for saying sorry. I’m over it and want everything to be a smooth process. Can we still be friends, okay?"

The word "sorry" saved our relationship. If I had chosen to reply emotionally, perhaps our friendship would have ended there. But by being humble, we were able to get closer again and even become a more solid team.

The lesson I learned from this experience is: ego never brings solutions. Sorry is not a weakness, but a strength that can fix what is broken. And to avoid situations like that, I learned to be more responsible, not to delay work, and to communicate obstacles early so as not to harm others.