Understanding others pain

Many people tell me of their pain. Ive always understood it but never really related to it.
Since I was very young, I've shut myself down to pain due to the childhood I experienced. I suppose it was my way of coping.
A few months ago, a person I came to really like and trust disappointed me and I was terribly hurt by how it went and ended up.
I guess I haven't experienced hurt like that in such a long time that I never really got how hurt some of my friends were when they had similar experiences.
But as I come around after dealing with this experience, I can certainly relate on a much different level to many of my friends and the pain they have expressed to me. I see that as a sort of positive. I grew as a person by going to the deepest level of myself.
So I was both happy and sad at the same time.