Never quite understood why people got so distraught when a singing artist died. But my friend Elena Ledesma Rashid posted this tweet on her wall from someone named Juliette that makes it crystal clear: “Thinking about how we mourn artists we’ve never met. We don’t cry because we knew them, we cry because they helped us know ourselves.”

Musicians like Prince were the soundtracks to our lives, to our losses & loves, to the first time we kissed & fell in love, the first time we got dumped or felt a broken heart. Their music expressed the elation or sadness we felt & got us through all that.

So of course, we are distraught. Because they took a piece of our heart. May Prince RIP.