Essay...

The draft is due soon..only 500 words but yet I am not concentrating very well. I have changed from my initial topic to the current. Not that I am not focused but the fact that the area I am interested in has too many sub categories. I need to stay focused on one.

I chose youth suicide.

The thought was never in my mind. Not even when I was most down. But I have been through the trauma of losing someone who once walked the same path though I am not the immediate family. I could only share their grief and loss and that was the most I could do.

When I had to do this as a discussion topic with my students, I always asked this question:" If they have the courage to meet death, why can't they use the courage to live on? What can be more terrifying than death?" A student once replied:" Death is something which no one has experienced before, until that very moment. So there's nothing to fear about. But before that moment, they were unable to find a way out of their problems and to them that is real scary."

I thought it was an insightful answer.

Depression creeps in on us unknowingly and it is a growing trend in a country like ours. Youths are looking at death and near death as something exciting. I wonder if that is a kind of depression. Are there too much media influences? Is media trying to portray the real life or are they trying to lead people on with the script writer's imaginations? Or are there simply too many social problems emerging form the heart of the nation - the family?

While we see ourselves as healthy individuals, do we really have a dark side as well? The news of students committing suicide is on the rise. Are we really going to continue studying the trend instead of taking some practical actions?

I hope I can find the answer soon:)