The Schadenfreude tolls for thee
Have you ever googled or looked up on Facebook a bully or nemesis from your childhood?
I finally did. He wasn't exactly a bully, but he was never in any way nice to me, and very full of himself. I think I kind of envied his swagger and confidence he had likely gotten from his parents. I ran into him once a few years after college, and he was just as obnoxious as ever.
The other day I looked up his name on the internet. He didn't turn out to be very handsome. In fact, he was sick, in a wheelchair in some sort of hospice. Then I read that he died last year after a six-year battle with brain cancer. Googling some more backwards, he had moderate success as a literary agent and then a Hollywood producer. Married, had one child, lost his wife to diabetes.
So, mixed emotions, to say the least. Would I have felt even worse if he turned out to be a big success?
File this under "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Probably Never Do Again."