Sorry and Thank You

It seems to me that whenever I say 'I'm sorry' it's inevitably and eventually followed by my saying 'thank you'.

When I think on this recurring pattern I come up with time after time where it's been proven true.

At work: "I'm sorry but we're actually out of the special...thank you for dining with us tonight."

At school: "I'm sorry I missed class...thank you for understanding."

In life: "I'm sorry I did what I did...thank you for forgiving me."

I wonder whether or not this seeming relationship is something that I might have come upon because of its universal nature (doesn't everybody do this?) or if it might just be a mindset (I just tend to say 'sorry' and 'thank you' a lot, of course the two will happen close enough to one another.).

Whatever the case, I'll now attend to my words with an increased fervor in order that when I see myself approaching an area where the space between 'I'm sorry' and 'thank you' might be quite large I can curb my behavior in advance. Thus saving myself and the received of my expressions ample ache and unpleasantness.

That said, I'm sorry to have blathered on and on about this.
And thank you for listening.