I really have a problem with the word epiphany. In my experience, people seem to treat it like a...

I really have a problem with the word epiphany.

In my experience, people seem to treat it like a magic spell—I had an epiphany, so you should appreciate that and forget everything that happened before.

But it just doesn’t work that way.

Even if the person never repeats the behaviour they had the epiphany about, it doesn’t change or reverse the past. Everything they did, everything they said, that still happened.

If someone genuinely realizes that they’ve been hurtful, saying, “I’m sorry” means a lot more. Saying, “I had an epiphany” seems to be used as a cop-out. “Oh, no. That was the old me. The new me doesn’t do that. Why would you bring that up? It’s over now.” It’s almost a way of shifting the blame to the other person.