Why Kill Yourself? -By Tayo Demola

   

           

Sometimes ago, I was returning from a program and saw a large crowd of people gathered in a pensive mood at the roadside. I noticed that while some were discussing in groups, others were frantically trying to catch a glimpse of something at the other side of a fence beside the road. The fence actually encircles an empty land beside this very busy road which also led to a police station.

Now you know how Lagos could be, whatever happens by the roadside or on the streets, such as fighting, quarreling or even gossiping, people would gather to watch and make comments. But on this day, it was neither a fight nor a quarrel that made these people gather but something bizarre and incomprehensible!

The challenges of life have become so overwhelming that some people would be challenged to back out. Perhaps they have weighed the options and possibilities and concluded that backing out is the best option for them. They have tried everything they know but can’t still get anything accomplished. Why continue to languish when all hope seems to be lost, they think. They feel it’s better to quit than to fail and face life’s embarrassing disgrace. But I can assure you of one thing: It is better to fail while trying to accomplish something and be propelled by such failure to accomplish better things than to back out of life’s unending challenges and fail to accomplish anything.

I saw several policemen there trying to cordon off the area to prevent people from going there but this had not yet paid off as some people climbed the fence to see for themselves what others had been going to see. Now you could see sorrow written in their faces: women clasping their hands over their heads and wailing, men with mournful faces and the atmosphere spoke of grief. Yes grief because humanity had there and then just lost a fine specie of the human kind who had decided to hang herself. She did not give herself a second chance and concluded all was lost and the journey to the unknown world was irrevocable. Clad in a white apparel, this lady found her way into the empty piece of land where no one could attempt any rescue and hanged herself!  And by the time she was discovered, it was already too late. What a pity!

What could make a person to take their own life? Has life become so brutish that a person has to take her own life just because she could not accomplish her dreams? Must we live based on the understanding that we must achieve a certain end without which life must cease? When properly examined, it would be discovered that several reasons lead people to commit suicide. It can be seen that those who do this sometimes leave suicide notes behind stating why they decided to terminate their own lives.

But the major reason why people do this is as a result of depression and frustration. They are just frustrated as a result of not getting what they want. At times, the warning signs would show that this person is so frustrated that he has simply lost hope in life. The mere fact that someone attempts to commit suicide without even succeeding in the act is a clear indication that there is something seriously wrong with that person’s life and a solution must be sought by him or someone close to him as soon as possible to prevent such person from killing himself.

Don’t ever think of killing yourself no matter how frustrated you may be. You may think you are frustrated but there are those who are even more frustrated than you and they have never contemplated killing themselves. The fact is that no matter how bad you think your condition is, you are not the only one passing through such condition. There are millions of people out there having similar experiences as you have and they keep on trying until they succeed.

If you fail to succeed, killing yourself will not make you succeed. If you fail to accomplish your dreams, killing yourself will not make you accomplish them; rather it will make you a permanent failure in life, a tragedy in the constant play of life and a failure in the sight of God the Creator. If the failure to accomplish something brings you sorrow, killing yourself will not make you happy, rather, such action will be the opening of a floodgate of sorrows for yourself and your family and you will become a total disappointment to your family, to the society and the entire human race.

The achievement of a goal does not lie in the number of red lights indicating a failure to accomplish it but in the number of green lights you can see in your inner mind showing you that you will achieve it someday no matter how long it takes. No matter how hard it seems, there must be a way. It will always be hard and has been so from time immemorial so it won’t be rosy now.  It does not matter that you have not gotten it now, what matters is that you’re still in the race and is determined to win. Therefore, don’t quit until you win the race and become a champion. 

God bless you.

By Tayo Demola