A friend of mine confided that he had suicidal thoughts. Nothing dramatic. Just grades. Concluding that since he’s spending so much time thinking about it, he abandoned the idea for another time.

I empathised. But I also reflected on the times that I wondered about death. Morbid curiosity. What could possibly be so bad such that living becomes so unbearable? Probably if the poor fellow happened to belong to an abusive father, later orphaned, bullied, disabled, with no exceptional talent and the only worry is where to get the next meal, I mused. No doubt such people do exist. Who am I to say that it is a remote possibility?

The point is: we are made of tougher stuff than we give ourselves credit for. There will definitely be ups and downs. And just like a sine curve the good times are just ahead. So there is no reason for us to throw our lives away. Don’t get me wrong; dying for one’s own God, country and family is a noble act of love but. planting bombs in trains to kill the innocent to make a statement is at best, extremely misguided. And jumping off a building because your high school sweetheart decides to dump you is downright stupid albeit sentimental.

Life is too short and precious for us to drown in misery. After a good cry we just have move on. By now, I can be accused of sitting on my high moral horse. Granted, I can never truly understand what some of you may go through even though I have my share of stormy days. One thing’s for sure though, you won’t find me swallowing sleeping pills, jumping off the roof/ bridge or slitting my wrists. I deserve better and so do you.

So, let us count our blessings and make the most out of life!