The thing is no one can understand how much someone can mean to a person, only you deep down will ever know.
They ask how can you grieve over someone that never knew you existed, someone that you never knew personally. But, I did know Chester, maybe not personally, but we all connected with him through Linkin Parks music.
He touched so many of our lives, a true inspiration, helped us through our adolescent years, helped us through our break-ups, hardships, and basically just dealing with life.
In my community, not many people listen to Rock music, so they think that I’m different, and always question ‘how can you listen to someone that’s constantly screaming’ or ‘how can you enjoy that, when it’s just noise’ but it’s never been noise to me. The truth is Linkin Parks music has always been suitable for every mood of mine, when I’m sad, or happy, or when I want a break from the world, it’s like they understand every situation that we’re in, and there’s a song for every situation. I mean they’re my everyday playlist, when I go the gym, on my way to work, on my back from work and when I just want to shut down from everybody.
When I got the news that Chester Bennington had passed on, I was in total disbelief. I started shaking uncontrollably, tears started to pour down and would just not stop. How could it be true that someone who seemed so happy can take their own life? But the truth is, we never know and understand what anyone is going through.
Depression is like the devil, it starts to eat you up from the inside, and just when you can’t take it anymore, you give up. It hurts to know that we knew that Chester suffered with this, but we weren’t able to do anything for him. I’m not sure how long this grieving period will last, but I feel so deeply for his family and his band mates. We all lost someone that meant so so much to us, a remarkable singer, a husband, a father, a friend, a band mate. I can’t even begin to imagine how they’ve been feeling since, ‘cause I know that I just feel pure emptiness inside. There will never be another Chester Bennington, or anyone that can come close to him, he will never be replaced and will never be forgotten.
I pray for strength for his family, his friends and Mike, Phoenix, Rob, Brad and Joe. We lost someone that we looked up to and our inspiration, but they’ve all lost a band mate, and most importantly a friend.
I never got the opportunity to have a meet and greet with the band, or see them play live, and it saddens me that I never will, but it saddens me even more that we will never have Chester back again. I hope that the Linkin Park legacy lives on.