This is my first time joining LPU. I have been a fan of LP since 2000. I suppose after 17 years, it’s more family than fan, now. I like that word…family especially when describing “us”. I first heard about Linkin Park both through the radio and MTV’s Total Request Live. I would watch the Countdown every day. I think the first music video I saw was either Papercut or Crawling. I was mostly into the girl and boy band phase as a tween, until I of course heard LP songs. Then, mind blown, my World of music exploded. They put the “popper stopper” to my musical tastes. I went to my first LP concert (and last with Chester) during their Meteora Tour, on Valentines Day 2004, in Portland, OR, at 16 years old. My second LP concert was the Memorial concert Oct. 27th. I never met the band. The Meteora concert was the most influential thing in my life. After listening to their music through a bad parental divorce, teen angst, general middle school stuff, and bullying, LP was there. No, they didn’t “save” me, but they helped me cope and become the person I am today. I still remember the 2004 concert as if it were yesterday. Like, I mean, everything. Flashforward to the Memorial concert, it wasn’t the reunion I wanted, but one I needed. The Memorial concert was everything I needed and more. Such a happy, healing, emotional, kick ass night.
The loss of Chester broke me into a million pieces that I am trying, daily, to mend back together. Sounds cheesy, but LP’s music was my battle symphony and comfort in my panic. Here was a man who influenced so many people in their own lives to better themselves. I’ve never known such a compassionate, caring, admirable person. Sometimes his lifestyle got the best of him, but that changed the fiber of his being. I don’t really want to bring up his family (including Samantha and Elka), but they are the strongest people I know in all this. Chester and Talinda were made for each other. They chose well in one another. If I could be half the person they are…
I won’t keep you any longer. I will part with this:
If you feel you are alone in this strange cruel world, I will be there for you. I will fight for you. I will no give up on you. If you can’t run, walk; can’t walk, crawl; can’t crawl, I will carry you.
Hi everyone!