It happened again. A 15 year old girl committed suicide today; hung herself in the bathroom at her school. And this is just another “unfortunate event” to everyone.

A couple girls at my work tested my patience for ignorance. They laughed while reading the article. Some of the comments they threw around were: “Suicide is selfish”, “If you want to kill yourself, it’s because nobody likes you”, “people who fail at suicide are just attention whores, but if they actually do kill themselves, then that’s sad”.

All this talk about death…and they didn’t know the person sitting next to them knows more about it than they will ever know. I had the urge to turn to them, and tell them what suicide is.

Suicide is not ‘selfish’…it’s a tragedy. Do you know how badly your world has to come crashing down to believe that death will make you feel better? Do you know what it’s like to be in so much pain, and hold it in? For months. For years. For a lifetime. They say suicide is selfish, but then why do the majority of people contemplating it keep it to themselves until they try and carry out the act? If it’s selfish, then show me the people having deep, long conversations with all their friends and family about how and why they want to kill themselves.

Can you point out the cutters? They wear long sleeves in the blistering heat so you don’t ask what those white marks are from. Can you show me the ones who starve themselves? As far as you know, they eat all the time, and just happen to not be hungry when around you. But you never quite paid attention to how their smile faded after they answered your question. Who are the ones that cry themselves to sleep every night? You say they’re attention whores, so come on, tell me who they are. I bet you don’t know any of the ones who are in pain. I hate to burst your bubble, but most of them are the ones with the biggest smiles.

You say it’s selfish. The kid who sits in front of you in math class has been picked on since grade school. After all these years, he finally believes he’s worthless, because he’s not like you. The girls all standing in a circle laughing…one of them escapes to the bathroom so she can throw up. She wants to look like all her “pretty friends”, in hopes of people liking her just as much as them. In the world of Photoshop - looks matter. That shy kid who bundles up…is hiding bruises from last night because their dad got a little tipsy and decided to teach them a lesson about respect.

These kids are your friends. They’re always there for you, but you take it for granted. And they know the way of the world - if you show sadness, you’re looking for attention. There’s no such thing as asking for help anymore.

That’s not selfish. That’s sad. It seems like everyone is leaving. And it’s because people with cold hearts roam this Earth, believing that pain is not something to accept, but to ignore and reject those who feel it all the time.

You can say all that you want about people who turn to suicide. But I’d rather help someone in pain than point and laugh as they bleed out on the floor.

People deserve the chance to live.