Hoping against hope

I have used the phrase "hoping against hope" innumerable times all through school, college and now as I am doing my Ph.D. Even in the worst case scenario I preferred to imagine that something good would happen, I preferred to believe till the last minute that whatever was not working would suddenly start functioning again and that eventually everything would just fall into place. Hoping for the best is what kept me going.

Can one completely lose hope?
Is it really difficult to get back the lost hope?
Why aren't some people able to make a U-turn after reaching a dead end?

In the last few years I have come across quite a few headlines in papers giving the news of an IIT student committing suicide. It saddens me to learn that these young kids chose to embrace death instead of life.

I can speak for myself and I am sure many would agree that we've had an easier life than our parents. We didn't have to give tuition to fund our education. We were never made to take care of the household and look after our brothers and sisters when we were in school. We didn't have to walk miles to reach our colleges. How many of our wishes were not granted by our parents?

May be we've had it too easy that at the very first instance of hard luck coming our way we begin to crumble. Whatever happened to that age old mantra of "if you try and don't succeed try, try again"?

We must remind ourselves like the dialogue from The Shawshank Redemption that "hope is a good thing" and we don't need any courage to hold on to it. Infact holding on to hope gives you the courage needed to face the future.