Death is inevitable for all. Despite its inevitability, however, it always somehow manages to shock us in some way when it happens. While health reasons as the cause of death are generally accepted, no one accepts suicides. Perhaps it is because of the way we process mental health and the effects it has if left untreated but we all seem to be fixated on the death as opposed to the thoughts and feelings people process before they take their own lives.
When I heard of the recent deaths of popular Swedish DJ Avicii, whose real name was Tim Bergling and an unnamed student from the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts, a fashion school in Antwerp, Belgium, they struck a chord. Both were creatives and one of them was my age.
There is a very dark side to creating and creating to survive that we often brush over. The glamorous optics of the creative industry sometimes make it impossible to see its flaws and the visibility makes it almost impossible for those affected to speak out. However, regardless of the glamour, the end product, whether a song, dress or a piece of writing, is sometimes primarily influenced by a dark place. While this may not be the case for everyone, it certainly was for me and a few others.