With adults pointing to scholars on tv and demanding straight As, teachers shouting at us for not doing well in common tests, and peers making study plans ( or, in my stress-addled mind, evil plots to trample all competition into the dust), i kept having attractive images of a knife dripping with blood --- my blood --- lying next to a note that says 'See what you all have done.'

Then i remembered this chapter in Our Daily Bread that tells the story of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian author who was sent to a Siberian prison for criticizing communism. Due to its intolerable conditions, he decided to end his life by compelling a guard to shoot him. As he moved towards the exit (attempts to walk out are met with execution?), another prisoner sat down to block him, leant over and then drew a cross on the floor. Wondering if that fellow prisoner was a messenger from God, he resolved to endure his imprisonment and was eventually set free to bear witness to the world.

God makes life worth living. In difficult circumstances, keep our minds on Him =)