The fabled speech of the young Prince Hamlet of Denmark leaves its audience with an illustration of an age old battle between us and ourselves. The young prince does not say which path to choose but brings forth some insight on some of the issues taken into account. Hamlet certainly makes a compelling case for the “not to be” side, he reminds us of the constant troubles that life throws our way. He compares these troubles to the never-ending waves of an ocean crashing against us. Hamlet also assures us that there is no man or woman who can hit us nearly as hard as life can. Life will bring even the strongest man out there to his knees in one swift blow, but not sleep. Sleep is revered for bringing rest at the end of a tiresome day, Sleep is admired for bringing peace to even the most hate-bent people. Hamlet also admires sleep and claims that perhaps the constant struggles of life are not even worth waking up to. I don’t share all of the same opinions as the young Prince Hamlet though, some of his logic is faulty. Life is a good thing, Life isn’t supposed to be miserable. Life doesn’t have to be full of never-ending waves of struggle and sorrow, you can enjoy what you wake up to in the mornings. Life is not a predestined plan, the choices you make can influence the quality of life you have. You can choose the path that makes you the most happy. Another way you can improve your happiness is a change of attitude, one of my favorite quotes goes a little like this “Life is 10% what happens, and 90% how you react to it”. If you don’t like what happens to you, then react in such a way that you will benefit in the end. Ending your own life is never the solution to your problems, finding a way to deal with them and get something good out of it is the better solution. As touched upon in the latter paragraph, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. Sometimes life deals a hand that’s just too much for one man to handle, no matter how much he tries to be optimistic or positive. Sometimes life is too inside out to fix, and nothing would satisfy one more than to just be done with it all. The good isn’t worth all the bad. Why endure so much hardship for such a small moment of relief if even? Sleep always brings relief, you might have nightmares interrupt your sleep but while you’re actually in that sleep state you have no worries. Therefore it would be the wiser choice to sleep and never wake, rather than wake to constant pain and suffering.
