Who cares if one more light goes out in a sky of a million stars?

It’s already been over ten days since the horrible news. Between writing for Windows Central and getting ready for my upcoming semester, this has been one hell of a hard week and a half to push through.

It’s been hard to think of something to say. I, like many, many others, had absolutely no idea that you were going to take your own life. To me, you seemed like you were finally happy — finally healing after the onslaught of pain that was so obviously clawing at your insides, which your earlier music so clearly illustrated to us.

You once said in a lyric to help you leave behind reasons to be missed, and to leave out all the rest. Well, that’s what I intend to do.

I miss you because when I was a young child, around ten years old, I would listen to your music when I was angry or stressed out by the struggles of becoming a young adult. Funnily enough, I did so in the strangest format possible. When I was that age, I didn’t have any form of iPod or other MP3 device, so I listened to you via an SD card, crammed full of your songs, in my Nintendo DS, with an old pair of earbuds that were laying around the house. I didn’t care, though. The music was there, and it was so relieving to hear someone being as stressed and angry at the world as I sometimes was then — even if I hardly paid attention to the words, or what they meant.

I miss you because as I began to grow older, I went back and listened to the lyrical compositions of your music, and I was taken aback by the pure art. The music of Linkin Park is so beautifully written that I quickly fell even more in love with it. Linkin Park quickly became my favorite band for this reason (though it was arguably my favorite as a kid, as well). As an aspiring English major, the narratives that you created in your music really hit home with my heart. While I never faced any of the terrible experiences that you did in your past, the song’s lyrics were so powerful that I could feel what you felt regardless.

I miss you because of your confidence and tenacity. It isn’t a secret that, over the years, Linkin Park has faced criticism for not sticking to their roots and continuing their nu metal success. But I admire your (as well as all of Linkin Park) ability to push forward and create what you want. I admire the fact that you feel confident in yourself enough to enter different genres and create new blends of sound through your styles. I admire the fact that I can go to a Linkin Park channel on Pandora and listen to five different types of music all sung by one person. I admire your sheer range as a musician. It’s an incredible talent and one that the world was graced to have on its soil.

Finally, I miss you because you are a person, one that showed the world how he felt and one that helped so many others through difficult times. Regardless of what you may or may not think of yourself, I hope you know that millions upon millions of people’s heartstrings were intertwined with Linkin Park’s compositions. What you and Linkin Park did and have done for the world is absolutely incredible. From “Music for Relief” to your charity mobile game “Linkin Park Recharge”, you sought to help people around the globe live a better life. Not only was your music extremely influential on the world, but your other actions were as well. Through this, you proved to everyone that, above all, you were a beautiful, kind, humane soul who only wished to make the world a better place.

In conclusion, I just want to thank you myself, Chester. You’ve been a major impact on my life, for the better. Your music has reinvigorated me when I’m tired, and it has helped me find a way to feel bright when things around me have occasionally looked very dark. You have touched my heart.

This is the last concert you ever performed.

I recently watched the whole thing and I was reminded of the unique, beautiful and heartfelt music that you and the rest of Linkin Park have created for us over the last 16 years.

So, I ask again.

Who cares if one more light goes out in a sky of a million stars?

Well…I do.