On August 6th, about 80 million millennials became the equivalent of political orphans. That was the day of Jon Stewart’s final show, marking the end of an incredible run of news comedy, leaving Generation Y with no one to turn to. This oft-beleaguered generation has yet to live through a single major world event that wasn’t narrated by Stewart’s comedic, yet often critical voice. While I won’t venture into the cliché and declare this an ‘end of an era,’ this most definitely feels like a crossroads for many of us. It’s hard to imagine a world where a Comedian is one of the most influential men in the world, but then again we live in the same world where Donald Trump currently leads a field of GOP candidates 17 deep.

Jon Stewart wasn’t always the voice of reason in a sea of vapid media members and fatuous politicians. When he took over the Daily Show after Craig Kilborn’s departure, the show deserved its derogatory moniker of ‘Fake News,’ being described as a knock-off of SNL’s ‘Weekend Update’ segment. The show’s tone noticeably changed after 9/11 when Stewart said what we were all thinking with an authenticity that was, and is, rarely seen in a media member.

“I’m sorry to do this to you. It’s another entertainment show beginning with an overwrought speech of a shaken host–and television is nothing if not redundant. So I apologize for that. It’s something that, unfortunately, we do for ourselves so that we can drain whatever abscess is in our hearts and move on to the business of making you laugh, which we haven’t been able to do very effectively lately.”

The thing is, over the next 14 years his speeches were never redundant. There was something utterly sincere, and comforting about the way his voice would shake when leading us through tremendous tragedies, as recently as the Charleston Church Shooting earlier this year when Stewart lamented that “I didn’t do my job today, I’m sorry. I’ve got nothing for you in terms of jokes or sounds.”

Even without tragedy, Stewart’s authenticity was the driving force, subverting, while simultaneously legitimizing, the show’s satire format. Take the following clip; one of Stewart’s most famous, where he dresses down CNBC’s Jim Cramer, host of ‘Mad Money.’ Jon gives him the ol’ classic Daily-Show one-two, by first allowing Cramer to speak his mind and then undermining Cramer’s points with clips from Cramer’s past. With the facts and videos to back him up, Stewart is given the moral high ground to hold people like Cramer accountable time and time again. Even in this piece, one of Stewart’s angrier moments, he never completely loses his cool head and instead takes on the role of a disappointed parent: “I understand you want to make finance entertaining, but it’s not a fucking game. And when I watch that, I get, I can’t tell you how angry that makes me. Because what it says to me is: you all know. You all know what’s going on.” It’s this fiery passion and respect for the people that he, and the rest of the media, is reporting to that elevated his show beyond comedy.

A running theme throughout his tenure was his focus on the media members and their onus to do right by the American people. This crusade was highlighted by his appearance on the CNN show ‘Crossfire’ where he desperately pleaded with the show’s two buffoons dressed as hosts to “stop hurting America… You have a responsibility to the public discourse, and you fail miserably.” This sincerity and ability to hold the rest of the media accountable culminated in Jon Stewart being voted the Most Trustworthy Newsman in America by Time’s readers in 2009. While he naturally brushed off these accolades, there was some truth behind it. Stewart’s viewers repeatedly led polls of ‘Most Informed Viewers’ throughout his tenure. Where are these viewers left to turn for their news now that he’s left the airwaves?

The natural answer is to assume they’ll make the pilgrimage to one of his successors and protégés. Stewart has created an impressive comedy legacy which expands far past his own show, though past Correspondents like Samantha Bee, Al Madrigal, and even the recent Jessica Williams won’t be providing any media takedowns in the near future. There was Steven Colbert who earned a spot in the hearts and minds of many on The Colbert Report, but he has left his seat to head to the Late Night circuit. John Oliver has made a well-crafted show on Last Week Tonight, but with only one show a week and half of it dedicated to a long form segment, there’s not enough time for Oliver to provide the same commentary. The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore is more focused on hitting on the social issues of today, while Jon’s replacement, Trevor Noah, has already stated he is going to take the show in a new direction.

How could Jon leave us like this? Especially with an election coming up that is sure to be one full of outrageous soundbites, media misdirection, and corporate corruption. The fact is, we were lucky to have Stewart on our airwaves as long we did. While in his last show, the current Correspondents paid tribute to him as ‘A Man Who Was On TV,’ his legacy will be much more than that. As I mentioned previously, his show’s viewers were amongst the most politically savvy out there, and that was no mistake. His show didn’t necessarily breakdown the facts, what it did was taught a generation to question the norm, see through the bullshit, and think independently. We live a world where we have access to more information than was previously imaginable, yet with that comes an equal amount of misinformation. As the mainstream media and cable news stations kept feeding us fish, Stewart taught us how to fish. We’re all more equipped to face the world after having watched his show, and that will truly be Jon Stewart’s Legacy. In a world that is seemingly encroaching upon the terribly absurd, we’re all able to use this rationality to preserve a bit of sanity as we move forward. I’d like to personally thank Jon Stewart for his service and his teachings, and I truly hope he is able to find his own moment of Zen.