"Don't Judge a Book by its Cover"

For my dad, the most important thing in life is a book.

He always asks me what book I’m reading, and I’m usually reading a book we were assigned in school, and since he doesn’t recognize the title, he gets mad and argues why aren’t we assigned with “classic” and “important” books. I argue back saying that it’s not about how classic and important books are, it’s about us learning different types of writing.

Last week, he asked the same question: “What book are you reading?” I answered, “The Burn Journals”

Before he could start criticizing for not recognizing the title he just asked me what it was about. I explained that it was about a 14 year old kid who soaked his bathrobe with gasoline and lit up a match to kill himself. He sounded interested. He kept on asking: “why? When? How?” I kept on explaining how stupid his reasons were to try and commit such mistake.

My dad then began a sermon on how precious life is, I pretended to listen because he always gives me the same boring speeches about life. But then I began to think. “Why was he so interested on this memoir?” And then it hit me. I have never felt the pain of someone close to me passing away. I thought. He has, and losing a child must be the hardest pain of all. So it makes me keep on wondering why do people do it? Their biggest problem is how selfish they are. They only think that their problems will end, but don’t realize that the only thing they’re doing is creating more problems for the people who love them.