I have a fairly new phone and I have noticed that since I started using it, I get lots of notifications from Apple's news app. Random headlines pop up throughout the day, so much so that it has kind of become a personal game to read them allowed with friends.

Oftentimes, the headlines are absurd and completely ridiculous like, "Exclamation points are stressing people out at work" from the Washington Post or "Coconut oil is poison" from Daily Mail (these are real headlines). Rarely do I actually read the articles, as the click-hungry news outlets so desperately desire but I always read the notifications.

Unfortunately, this means that I am usually the first person to know about deaths like Aretha Franklin, Avicii, and Anthony Bourdain. So you can imagine my shock as the headline "Mac Miller dead at 26: Ariana Grande's ex-dies from a drug overdose" popped up on my screen on that Friday afternoon.

There are moments where I am surprised by my feelings toward the loss of Mac Miller and I know I can't be alone in that. Death is sad, I expected to be sad, but this was one of those losses that felt much more uncomfortable than so many of the others. I hadn't truly listened to his music in years, he was more of a nostalgic artist for me, which is why I was somewhat confused.

I saw a lot of similar comments on twitter with a few summing them up:

A common sentiment to feel in the wake of death is to feel that it was too soon, it's always too soon. But Mac Miller was 26. All of his fans who grew up listening to him grew up WITH him as well.

He's only 4 years older than I am so it hits so much more like a friend than a rapper who overdosed.

I feel it right to help organize most of the key takeaways from Mac's passing here, mostly because it is my way of processing the situation but also to possibly help break it down for anyone else who seems sort of stuck in place following the news.

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Mac Miller was a standalone, great.

Regardless of whether you have ever been a fan of Mac Miller, you can't deny that he deserves so much respect for his career. If you've been there since the beginning you know how influential K.I.D.S., his 2010 mixtape, was and still is to this day. His music is the soundtrack to so many moments through our high school/middle school days.

He achieved so much success before he was even 19 years old.

Throughout it all, we've been able to experience this genuine and hilarious person grow with us. He was down to earth, he was raw and he was real.

Substance abuse is a problem.

Mac was real. A real human being who experiences highs and lows. At the time of writing this, his autopsy has not confirmed what exactly caused his death but it is suspected to have been cardiac arrest due to a drug overdose. Knowing that I think it's a good time for some self-reflection. Situations like this usually prompt posts like "check up on your friends" and "you don't know what people are going through."

That's 100% true.

But we need to be holding these thoughts consistently and especially when life feels like it's going great. If you have the luxury of someone being open with you that they are at a low point or have a problem, you can't let that shit go. There's no more time for "Dang that sucks" or feeling like those people bring you down, they need support.

A lot of times, someone won't be transparent with you about substance abuse, anxiety, depression, etc. If you feel even a whisper of concern for someone, reach out, just be real with them. It's really not that awkward to CARE about someone or just be there. Because you might be the only one who actually is there. It's the least you could do.

People grieve and you need to let them

I already named Mac's most recent ex-girlfriend once in this article so I am going to leave it at that because it's not about her. I was happy to see the media called out by a lot of people for referencing her so much in the coverage of his death, but I am going to touch on it for a sec.

We all lost someone in some capacity and that person is not here to say what happened, why, his feelings about anything.

So, dragging ex-girlfriends into the situation and literally throwing them under the bus and BLAMING them for a death that doesn't even have a confirmed cause yet, it's absurd and ignorant. Stop spreading hate to his ex-girlfriend, or certain people who decided to post screenshots of messages between them and Mac. We all were affected and everyone grieves in their own way.

For you to jump in and accuse people of capitalizing on his death just because they are posting in the wake of his death is ridiculous. Take that out on the media who paints Mac Miller as someone's ex who died. There is more justification for coming after me for writing this than there is for hating all of these people who ACTUALLY knew him.

You don't get to decide who gets to grieve and when they are done. There are too many other important things to be mad about.

It's perfectly okay if you had never even heard of him until he died and if that's you I implore you to go listen to any of his work. Regardless of if you are a longtime fan, a recent fan, or like me and hadn't been into him for several years, he needs to be remembered. He needs to spark a conversation.

I am not holding his death as a bigger deal than all of the other special people we've lost this year, 2018 has been a hard year in that regard.

But Mac Miller was so many things for so many people and I don't think it's right for his legacy to fade right now. His, and so many others' story is so inspirational and can continue to help us, all of us.

It's such a tragedy so if you are sitting there wondering why you are still hung up on it, I hope this helped even if just a little, but don't rush it. Work through it, turn on that one song of his that gets you, and take your time.