Shocking deaths quickly fade from our memories

About two years ago, someone I knew - let me refer to her as "G" - committed suicide. She jumped from the eighth floor of our university dorm building, ending her 22 years of life.

It was a quiet afternoon - perhaps like the one you just had, or about to have today - and I was in front of my laptop doing something that I have since long forgotten, a mere door away from G's dorm. The sudden screams of G's roommate didn't register with me at all when they first pierced the walls. I thought it was just another drama queen being her usual self.

Then, as lots of doors along the corridor swung open and girls in pyjamas and slippers hurried toward my neighbor's room, I realized the drama was real.