owning a mistake doesn't erase the damage it caused

It's not easy admitting when you've made a mistake, especially when it's one that has cost someone either money, time, or something equally important. While some mistakes can be fixed, others cause damage that cannot. I've made those kinds of mistakes and still spent an inordinant amount of time trying to fix them to no avail. What I should have done was owned up to my mistakes and tried to be better and do better from that point forward. You would think I would have learned from, well, my own mistakes. 

I recently made a horrible mistake that could not be corrected. I tried to figure out what had gone wrong, how I could have made such a blunder. In the end, I did have to own up to it, admit that I'd made the mistake, apologize, and offer some potential resolutions, none of which eradicated my wrongdoing. This mistake could have been averted if I had simply paid more attention to what I was doing. But I was distracted and in a hurry, and the end result was that someone was greatly affected by my mistake. 

My apology doesn't change anything. My admitting that I had done wrong didn't take away the sting of what I had done. But it did tell that person that I wasn't trying to hide from my mistakes. As an adult, I owned it.

I don't know if the person my mistake hurt will forgive me yet. I don't know how this will affect our working relationship, but I do know that I've done what I am supposed to do in instances like this. What I should do every time I find myself in a situation like this. But noone likes to admit when they're wrong. I'm definitely one of those people!