Chapter 29: The Perfect Candidate

Life can often feel overwhelming, making us sigh in frustration and declare, "Life is hard." Yet, paradoxically, we also say that life is precious. What many fail to recognize is that it isn't life itself that's hard or precious—it's the people in our lives who shape those perceptions. We don't grow weary of life itself; we grow weary of the people in it. Life doesn't suddenly become difficult; it is always the people who make things challenging for us. Likewise, life isn’t inherently precious; it’s the people we love who make it so. No one willingly gives up on life. No one is born with the courage to face death by choice. But when the people who give us the strength to live turn away, we lose our will to continue living. Christina could be considered a prime example of someone who chose death over life when everyone she cared about abandoned her. It wasn’t that life had lost its value; rather, the people in her life had ceased to matter to her. It wasn’t that she had suddenly gained