Very recently, a really good friend of mine died. His name was Alejandro. I knew him only for a short amount of time, a month. In that short of period of time, he showed me that the world is not completely hopeless and that we should never give up.

Too bad he did. He had gone through so much. His mother hated him because he was a reminder to her of the night she was raped by Alejandro's father. His brother did not trust him. His father had died after he got out of prison. His daughter did not want to live with him because she was ashamed of him. He once told me that he would hate to see anyone want to kill himself or herself. Suicide was one of the things he was against. The mystery to me is why he would do something he was so against.

The morning he committed suicide, he was depressed. The night before, he went into his bedroom, locked himself in, and didn't come out for a long time. He didn't eat, sleep, or talk to anyone. His friend asked me to talk to him; so I did. But not enough. He kept saying that no one would care if he died; that he had no purpose in the whole entire world.

Those were signs that he was going to commit suicide. No one paid attention to those signs. Not even me. I wish I had. Maybe if I talked to him more, he would still be here.

Everyone he knew was deeply affected by his death. He touched our lives in more ways than he knew. We're all grieving. The pain Alejandro's death caused is intense. He was one of a kind. We all miss him.

What I am saying is that suicide is not the way out. It's not even a solution. All it does is cause a lot of pain. I'm asking all of you to never consider it. Even if you think that no one cares about you...you're wrong. There's always someone out there who does care. I would hate to find out that someone I knew would want to commit suicide. It's not a solution to any problem. It just creates more problems.