The Alternative

Wikipedia lists possible reasons for writing a suicide note as:

• To ease the pain of survivors by attempting to dissipate guilt
• To increase the pain of survivors by attempting to create guilt
• To set out the reason for suicide
• To gain sympathy or attention
• To give instructions as to disposition of remains

A particularly interesting suicide note comes from Christine Chubbuck, a news anchor who prepared a press release for her suicide before shooting herself on air.

In this vein, I would like to prepare a press release describing my decision to live. Not permanently of course, as I may change my mind at any moment, but for the moment it was written. The title would be something like "Local Student Commits Unsuicide".