Am I An Asshole For Celebrating A Person's Passing?

[Anonymous]

When I was in first grade there used to be a kid called Auramzain. He was a huge jerk. He had a typical smug looking face with a long nose (similar to Anti Semitic cartoons) and had a very annoying grin.

He would lie and cheat. One of the worst things he did was cheat during our first grade sports day where he made me trip and won the medal. Me and all my class hated him.

However after first grade he moved to Japan with his father. And we were all happy to get rid of him.

A few years later when we were in 3rd or 4th grade we learnt that Auramzain has passed away. Though he was a kid just like us. The news of his death was a source of celebration and delight for all of us.

The original news was that he fell while mountain climbing (more likely hiking) with his father. I assume both he and has father passed but I didn't pay attention. We were all just happy that he has died.

As time passed we started joking about his death. Trying to one up each other my coming up with horrifying scenerios on how he died and feeling a sense of satisfaction imagining him in those circumstances.

Things included like him getting burnt alive, his father giving him AIDS (get the implication) or him getting rxped to death etc.

After fifth grade however we moved onto middle school and forgot about that kid we all hated from first grade.

Now as a grown up, thinking back at what happened I don't know how to feel about how we reacted to his death.

On one hand we were kids who we glad a person who we all hated got what was coming to him. However on the other hand In hindsight we were celebrating the death of a child not more than a 3rd grader.

I tried to verify through multiple sources if he actually died and he did indeed die in Japan around that time. However the details are hard to find since it was so long ago.

But still. Am I A bad person for enjoying his death and joking about it? Honestly I feel nothing thinking of it. But should I?

[Oliverlogan263]

Hmm, that's a really tricky situation. On the one hand, of course no kid deserves to die, even if he wasn't very nice. But at the same time, we were all just little kids back then too. I don't think getting a dark thrill out of it necessarily makes you a bad person now.

Kids can be mean without really understanding consequences. And it's human nature to feel satisfaction when someone who hurt us gets taken down a peg. I'm sure we all did and said things as little kids that we wouldn't now.

The important thing is you recognize celebrating death isn't okay. And you'd never do something like that now as an adult when you know better. If it still bothers you, maybe say a quick prayer for the kid's soul to find peace.

But don't beat yourself up too much over kid thoughts and behaviors from so long ago. We've all grown up and changed since first grade. Best we can do is treat others, even enemies, with basic humanity going forward. Try not to overthink the past - you seem alright to me man!

[ProbablyClueless]

I mean... celebrating his death probably isn't earning you any points for the afterlife, but I think we all know/knew someone that the world would be better off without.