Reading Entry # 11

    Recently, I started reading the book 'The Burn Journals' by Brent Runyon. The book is about a young kid, about thirteen years old, who attempts to commit suicide by setting himself on fire. He fails in his attempt to kill himself, but does suffer from third degree burns and has to stay in a hospital for several months. Reading about a kid my age who wants to kill himself, and hearing the story about a teenager who jumped off a bridge, made me think more about suicide in teenagers.
   In the book 'The Burn Journals', the reason why Brent Runyon attempts to commit suicide is because he thinks he is going to get expelled from school, and therefor his life would be over. This got me thinking about what it would take for me to take my own life. Personally, I don't think I ever could end my life, not only would I have ruined my life, but I would have affected the lives of the people around me. I know that my parents would always wonder what they could have done differently, and my sisters life would never be the same. I just don't see what could make me kill myself, it would just affect and hurt the people I care about the most in the world.
   It also made me wonder about kids my own age, and what it would take to push them  to commit suicide. Just getting expelled, or something bigger? An eighteen year old boy commit suicide because he was bullied at school for being gay. A young irish girl, about fifteen, hung herself because kids at school were taunting her. These two deaths made me not only sad, but also a little bit confused. How could taunting and bullying drive someone to suicide? It made me wonder if they thought nothing would ever change in their lives. How intense were the taunts that these two people took there own lives? Are there kids around me going through the same thing? It made me wonder, is there anything I can do to help?