Meghan+S’s+2015+OpEd+Article

= Death Should Not Be Exaggerative Tool =

“I have so much APUSH homework I’m probably going to die!”

“If you make that joke one more time I’m gonna kill myself!”

It often goes unnoticed. Exaggeration is such an integral and ingrained part of today’s society it seems, that often we trivialize, and even mock, serious issues on a day-to-day basis without realizing it.

Until recently I did not not notice how often I make comments about wanting to die, or kill myself, on a casual basis in a joking manner. Just admitting it makes me feel tainted and awful, but it is the unfortunate truth. Of course my APUSH homework is not actually going to bring about death. I would never even think of killing myself over an overused joke. I am very lucky to be living the life that I live, and have never suffered from any serious depression or anything of the sort. Yet I still find these words slipping from my mouth (often without the acknowledgement of my brain) to produce such sentences.

My rude awakening to the matter came when recently, a friend of mine dealt with someone in their life committing suicide. After witnessing how this affected my friend and realizing how serious the matter is (not that I hadn’t thought it was serious before, but witnessing the effect in such close proximity is a whole other story) I became hyper-aware every time I used these sentences, and discovered that both myself and others use them far too often.

In just the time it took me to compose this essay:

I received a text saying, “I die everytime,” in reference to a funny vine.

I heard a guy waiting at the tire store say to his mother, “I think my phone just decided to kill itself.”

I walked into the room while my sister was FaceTiming (video chatting) a friend and heard, “If you screenshot that, I’m gonna kill myself!”

Listening to a song this morning I heard the lyric, “Oh, and it kills me,” in reference to the attractiveness of someone.

At break I heard someone say “[insert name]’s snapchat story totally makes me want to kill myself.”

Walking back from the bathroom during class, I heard someone from a P.E. class exclaim, “I’m dying!”

“Kms,” has arisen as a colloquial acronym for “kill myself.” I see this at least once a day on one form of social media or another, and sometimes even hear someone say it aloud.

These are just a few examples; there are many I have not included. The list goes on and on, and I think you get the point.

The point is that this is not acceptable.

Now every time I hear those words, it’s like a smack upside the head. And that’s how it should feel. Death is not something to make light of, to throw into a sentence when we have too much homework, or fall going up the stairs, or can’t find our shoe in the morning. Suicide and death are serious issues, issues that do not deserve to be integrated into our vocabularies in this manner.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">We never know if someone around us is struggling with a recent death in their family, or contemplating suicide themselves, and this trivialization of the concept could potentially be detrimental and offensive to both. Death is serious, not a thing to joke about to add flair to our sentences. Not an exaggerative tool to get our point across.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">This being said, I am not looking to attack, or even accuse anyone necessarily. After all, I have [had] a bad habit of doing it myself. It is simply an acknowledgement that we are doing something wrong that can, and should, be fixed. An acknowledgement of a trend that needs to cease.

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Let’s use words in a normal manner. Instead of saying something is killing us, how about we say it’s making us upset? Not as much as an impact, I realize, but that’s the way it should be. Exaggeration will only lead to the desensitization of concepts and words that should not be desensitized. Death is not a concept that deserves such desensitization. Please join me in halting this unfortunate trend that has arisen. Please sacrifice your hyperbolic vocabulary to prevent yourself from unknowingly harming others in your day-to-day speech. I’ve taken on the challenge, can you? <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">