Once there was a young man whose life had been completely ruined by one miserable failure after another. His whole life, he had done nothing right and felt that there was nothing worth living for anymore.

One day, the young man decided to jump off the old bridge outside of the city. As he was walking toward the middle of the bridge, he saw someone familiar there. The young man was stunned. His sneakers felt glued to the ground for a brief moment. Then he rushed to the spot of impending death. The water roared loudly below the bridge.

Without looking in the young man’s direction, the familiar someone yelled out, “Stop right there, or I’ll jump.”

The warning shocked the young man. How did this stranger know he was there? He slowly came to a stop. The person was looking toward the sky, and the sound of the water suppressed the sound of the young man’s steps. The person didn’t seem to care much about the young man and instead continued to yell.

“I was born an orphan, but I tried to find a family that would care for and love me. Still haven’t found it. Then, I found the love of my life. Everything was going well, but then my best friend stole my love. What’s left? Nothing.”

The young man was astonished, as this person’s complaint was remarkably similar to his own. He realized that there was no point to it at all after thinking about it. The young man abandoned his decision to jump off the bridge. As he did, the person whom he thought he saw slowly disappeared. Gone.

Image Credit: Crystal Furler