Sis-in-law was messaging me early in the morning, telling me she hasn’t slept at all. They had to attend to an emergency situation involving a student in our university who lived just a few townhouses from them.

The kid offed himself.

Long story short, there was pressure from this week’s finals, had a problem with not being able to graduate on time, and top of it all, he broke up with his girlfriend the day before.

His housemates couldn’t open his bedroom door. The owner of the unit already had a gut feel; he’s been through this before with a high school mate of his. They called the barangay and the police.

They confirmed the worst.

The parents said academically he had no problem, being a graduate of Philippine Science High School and all. It’s just that the kid had a history of depression. His friends said they didn’t know he was struggling mentally because he was a charismatic guy.

But you know, those who are in danger of going over the edge are the ones you least likely think would do so.

My SIL had to comfort the kids who were huddled infront of the apartment. They cried in her arms; they didn’t know how to deal with this tragedy. All of them had thesis defense scheduled this week. All of them were graduating this sem.

When you give up this fight, it’s not only you who would lose this fight. All of them would.

We said a little prayer for him, his family, and his friends.

I lost many friends to suicide.

I can’t blame them though. Sometimes the pain is just too hard to bear. You can’t claw your way out of the dark pit that has been closing in on you. You scream soundlessly, hoping for some release. You can’t reach out to others because they wouldn’t understand this hollow and dull ache inside. You just want to give up and go.

I wish I could reach out to kids who feel trapped like this. Too young to go on the deep end.

I wish I knew my friends were trapped like this. I could have helped and reached out.

But I didn’t know. We all didn’t know.

How to cook with minimal effort? Air fryer and steamer.

I don’t want to mess around with pots and and pans. Because Twin I managed to blow up our microwave oven while I was away in Singapore, I’m left with just the steamer to heat up rice in the fridge. To save on electricity, I thought I’ll just use the other baskets to steam veggies and make savory steamed eggs.

I had been eating like this for two days now so I decided to make pork sinigang in my Instant Pot today. It was too much for one person, though. I ate it for brunch and dinner and I still have a lot of leftovers.