If you have seen the old 80s movie Heathers, you know that suicide became another “trend” for all the populars to do. It reflects how no matter how ridicule or utterly stupid a “trend” might be, if enough influence is proposed upon it, suddenly everyone is doing it. But Heathers was supposed to be a dramatic version of pop culture and such. It isn’t so anymore.

Recently my friend Ashley (name changed) attempted suicide. Fortunately she was unsuccessful, but when i saw her in the hospital 2 days later she told me she regretted being saved from her death. I asked her why she even did it in the first place. It took her a while to reply, but eventually she said: “I suppose everyone does it these days when they have a problem.” She told me about how her older brothers girlfriend killed herself merely because her mother called her obese. She told me how her aunt killed herself because she had too many unpaid bills. She told me how her own brother cut himself on a regular basis, as well as she. Her scars breached up her arms in criss crosses that showed her anger and sadness she had kept inside for so long. I realized that so many people think that suicide is a common thing, an easy way out that most people do.

Asking my other friend the next day if she thought suicide was a part of pop culture, she responded that since suicide is such a monsterous thing, media emphasizes it when it happens creating the illusion of it happening more often than it really is. I agree with her. People are seeing so many killing themselves because media flaunts off almost every suicide case. Creating an illusion of suicide being a common thing is the worst mistake of all.

Being a personal victim of attempted suicide I think I can speak for most who’ve attempted or succeeded. A split second before you actually die you realize you don’t want to. No matter how much hurt there was before it finally lifts and you see all the things you really need. The people who love you, the things you live for, your dreams, everything that would’ve stopped you before flashes through your mind. Luckily for me there was time to save me and I will never ever turn onto that course again. Suicide is not worth it, and no matter how many suicide stories you hear on tv, don’t think that you need to do it just because somebody who’s going through the same thing as you killed themselves.

As pop culture rages I hope with all my heart that suicide will cease as a part of it. More and more people seek an end that really becomes the end for human society.