It's one of those elusive things in life.
It's one thing to forgive yourself for what you did, and another to forgive yourself for what you didn't. What about forgiving yourself for the ways you hurt others, especially when you didn't mean to?
This is one of the most difficult challenges you will ever have to face... when wisdom grants you a deep and sudden insight into your own misdeeds and selfishness, and you have to face an old thing all over again, but in a new way.
If this has happened to you, make no mistake: it means you are growing. It also means you're going to have to wade through a whole new swamp; one where you are willing to see yourself as the villain and not just the hero-to-be.
Take that knowledge and dive off from it. Do not live in it. While you are berating yourself for things that happened in the past, hating yourself for all the shoulda coulda wouldas, small you is standing there with round eyes, also begging for understanding.
Small you did not always know he or she was making the wrong choices, or that there would be more insight. Small you was living moment to moment, possibly just surviving.
Today I am sorry for all the people I wasn't able to be there for, because I wasn't there for myself.