A Very Meaningful Topic
This was originally published July 2021 on my original blog.
On July 29, 2017, the day that Chester Bennington died, I was in a rehab program trying to beat my addiction. Chester Bennington was the lead singer of my all-time favorite band, Linkin Park, as well as a band member in other bands and he also did a lot of collaborating with other musicians. He truly was a remarkable person.
I was only living in the area for a couple months as well so there was a lot going on with me at the time. I did not know many people at all, I was going through the first couple months of sobriety, and my mental state just wasn’t where it normally is for an outgoing person such as myself. Hearing about Chester hit me hard. I knew the band would not deal with it well either. They were all really close.
I knew that Linkin Park was in the process of finishing, and releasing a brand new album, and I was extremely excited about it. The band only puts out a new album every several years and since they are, and always will be my all-time favorite band, that is way too long to wait for new music! The hit single from that album was already being overplayed on the radio, and as always, it was great! At the time I did not know that Chester was suffering from major mental health issues, but if any of the songs he wrote and sang were of any indication, I should have picked up on it.
So yes, the news of Chester’s passing came as a shock to me. This of course was not the best thing for me seeing how I was in a rehabilitation program for one of the hardest and toughest things any person could go through. Plus, I was dealing with a bunch of guilt and depression of losing both of my parents within an 11 month period, before I could show them that I could best my addiction. Shortly after my mother had passed, prior to moving to the area I now live in, I had relapsed hard. This post isn’t about any of that however.
[insert cheap advertising opportunity] (I wrote a memoir about my addiction and subsequent recovery which sells at Amazon).
Nevertheless, the sadness that it brought to me stayed with me for some time. However, believe it or not, it also became a motivator for me to get better, both physically as well as mentally. I suffered from some mental illness as well in my life as well and I did not want to put myself in the same position, thinking that I was “not as bad” as others. So, I continued doing what I needed to, to get my life back on track, and to become the person I used to be prior to my addiction. I eventually succeeded but again, it is a very difficult journey!
Soon after I had started to work on a mobile wallpaper project featuring Linkin Park, but I also wanted to incorporate something in Chester’s memory. I was not sure exactly what I was going to accomplish with it and I did not know what form it would take in the end. I thought of possibly designing a poster, but in the end decided I would make a wallpaper for my mobile device. Of course life happened, more than once, and I fell behind on my progress with it, eventually even ceasing any work on it at all.
Recently, I started back on that project once again, and little by little I made progress, fnally finishing it last week. I truly feel that it came out well, considering the fact that I am definitely not an artist and graphic designing hasn’t been an interest of mine in quite a long time! Anywho, I wanted to share the results of my work and hope you all approve.
Thank you all for reading my post! Stay safe and God bless!
“I have been able to tap into all the negative things that can happen to me throughout my life by numbing myself to the pain so to speak and kind of being able to vent it through my music.”
– Chester Bennington
