Roy Tang

Someone on quora asked:

I’m 23 and I am really tempted to die. Why is that a bad thing?

Your life may be a struggle now, but there is no way to know what it will be in the future. You don’t know that it will always be a struggle. You don’t know that it will always be difficult.

For all you know, tomorrow you may talk to a stranger and turn his life around.

Or maybe you accidentally make a new friend who makes life easier.

Or maybe you fall into a new hobby that makes you excited for every new day.

Or maybe your story affects other people in ways you don’t expect.

Or maybe you answer a question on the internet and manage to stop someone from killing herself.

Death brings certainty. There is no meaning to it, it is simply an end. There is no chance for a do-over, you don’t get to try something else, you don’t get to have a sequel. It is simply the end.

Life is uncertainty. Uncertainty means there is always hope - hope for a brighter tomorrow, hope for change, hope that things will turn around. That means there is always a chance to tell a different story, a chance to be someone else, a chance to find your own purpose and to make your life meaningful.

The point of life is whatever you decide it to be. If it feels pointless, that’s because you haven’t decided yet on what the point is. And that’s fine, it doesn’t always come easily. Sometimes you find a point to life and later on it changes, that’s fine too. But if you die, you never get to find out what that point is.

Who are you to decide that your life is pointless? How much of life have you lived? How many places have you visited? How many cultures have you experienced? How many people from different walks of life have you had serious conversations with? How many people are there, worse off than you, yet still struggling hard to give their lives purpose and meaning? There is a lot of life to explore, you only need to be willing.

Lastly, if you are struggling with thoughts like these, it may seriously be a sign of depression. Please get in touch with a professional who can help you with these thoughts, and certainly don’t do anything drastic