Traumatic Event(s)
I haven't posted an entry for quite a while. I blame schoolwork and activities for making me busy. ;)
Today, Jinghao and I were in my dorm's 7th floor study lounge when a girl tried to jump off the balcony. The 2 other people in the lounge saw her on the other side of the railing and ran over. They tried to convince her not to jump. She was crying, and her cell phone kept ringing like someone was calling her frantically, but she didn't pick it up. I was so scared that she would die. The police came just in time. I didn't see what happened, but Jinghao told me that the girl let go, and one of the people talking to her grabbed her. Then the police rushed in and pulled her inside. She was clinging to the bars with her feet and shouting "No!" It took 3 people to pull her off the railing.
I had never seen someone so dramatically close to committing suicide. It's terrible that the girl was so depressed (or something so distressing happened to her) that she had to make such a difficult and terrible decision to kill herself.
Throughout that afternoon, as I was frantically cramming for my ochem midterm, I tried to concentrate, but images of what happened and what could have happened kept squeezing into my head. As an image or thought popped up, I tried to put it aside and tell myself that studying for ochem is important - I have no time to think about other things. But, really, how important is this test, compared to life and death? - when that girl, concentrating on her own life and tragedy, was surrounded by so many people, all concentrating on their own lives, who could've gotten to know her and have learned about the girl's suicide plans earlier?
Sometimes, I am stuck in the artificial world of homework, tests, and whether today's soup at the dining commons will be the coveted clam chowder. But events such as this open my eyes to the gift of life.
Right now, I've just finished taking my uber-difficult ochem midterm. After everyone handed in their test papers, the first reaction of 99.9% of the people was, "I hope the average was really, really low." I hope so, too, but even if the rest of my class does a Jinghao and gets a 100%, I know that there is much more to life. :P
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Comments
The most important thing is
The most important thing is to not take what life does to you personally. Obviously, considering how chaotic life really is, often you may feel that it is unfair to you--but taking that personally will not make you feel any better. Life is like a random process; sometimes you get a bigger number, sometimes a smaller one. Just take what you get and influence it in meaningful ways.
Otherwise you come to tragic decisions like the one we witnessed today.