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Health and Wellness

Suicide Isn't Selfish, You Are

Don't shame others for your ignorance.

Justina Ambroz

Jul 25, 2017

Odyssey Staff

1119

Justina Ambroz

One day you wake up and hear that a parent, a best friend, a classmate, a neighbor took their own life. Is your immediate thought: wow, that person is selfish? If it is, I ask you to really think about what it means to be selfish.

Selfish: lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure.

Now look at that definition and be honest with yourself. Do you actually believe someone taking their own life is doing it for personal profit or pleasure? There are many reasons for someone to take their own life.

From depression to regret, there is not one singular reason why someone commits this horrific act. For some, it can actually be a SELFLESS ACT. A parent, friend, or person who believes that they have become a burden, that those around them will be better off without them on this earth. Now, does that sound selfish?

As a child who lost her parent to suicide, I say that I am selfish. I am selfish because I wish every day and every night that my stepfather (who raised me from when I was 5) was still with me. When I have a question about my job, about boys, about life, I selfishly wish he was here for me to ask.

Want to know why it is selfish? That’s because he was in so much pain and mental anguish that he is now at peace even if he is not on this earth. It is selfish for me to not think of his pain and the reason why he felt it was the only way to find peace, but only think of my pain now that he is not here.

To those who say it is a selfish act, I ask you to look in the mirror and think of your own selfishness. Would you want your family, friends, and significant others to suffer alongside you as you battle depression, bipolar disorder, or any other mental anguishes?

I miss my father every moment of every day, but knowing he is at peace makes what he did acceptable to me. Knowing he is laughing in heaven (because I KNOW that’s where he is, don’t @ me) with my grandparents and watching over me gives me the peace I need.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.

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Suicide Isn't Selfish, You Are

Don't shame others for your ignorance.

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No one best represents the struggle like our favorite 90s squad.

1. When course schedules are released and you have a conflict between two required classes.

2. When there is only one section of a popular course.

3. Receiving the 18,000 emails reminding you to register ASAP.

4. When you need to see an advisor, but they are too busy/unresponsive.

5. Trying not to dress like a bum for your appointments with your advisors/department heads.

6. When you have a perfectly planned out schedule, and one class ruins it.

7. Carefully moving things around to accommodate a different class/section.

8. Waking up at 6:00 a.m. for your enrollment time.

9. Concocting a new schedule at your enrollment time after your original plan gets changed.

10. Getting into a class and filling the last available seat.

11. When all of your classes finally go through.

12. Realizing that you forgot a class that was a pre-requisite for everything else.

When your capability of "adulting" is put to the test

Nobody deserves to be living in poverty.

"Nobody living in one of the most influential nations in the world should be worried about making ends meet."

What is the current minimum wage at the federal level?

What are the benefits of raising the minimum wage?

What are the states that have set a $15/hour minimum wage?

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Because who understands your bitterness better than April?

1. When you have to provide an "interesting fact" for your first day ice-breaker.

2. When your professor is babbling on and on in his lecture.

3. When you edit your friend's paper and they get an A.

4. When it's 2 AM and you remember you have a test tomorrow.

5. When you finish taking the test and you're pretty sure you failed...

6. ...but then you get the test back and somehow passed.

7. When you've been up for 12 hours straight writing a paper.

8. And then you manage to stay awake in class the next day.

9. When you have to butter up your professor for an extra credit opportunity.

10. When you're assigned a group project.

11. And your group-mates are trying to chat about life instead of the assignment.

12. When it's your last class of the day and you're about to go home.

13. But then you remember rent is due tonight and the anger comes back.

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