Growing up, my brothers and I would ride into work with my dad to catch the bus. We had tons of burned off CDs with music we pirated from LimeWire, back when that was cool, and Dad would always let us choose the CDs we wanted to listen to. One of my favorites was a mix of Alice Cooper, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, and of course, Leonard Cohen. Honestly, I've been listening to Cohen for so long that it surprises me that so few college students know who he is. You can imagine how alone I felt when he died last week.

If you don't know Cohen, here's a little bit of a bio: He was born in 1934, his first album came out in 1967, and he wrote the wildly popular "Hallelujah." Yes, the one about the marble arch. His last album came out just two weeks before his unexpected death. This means that Cohen was a prominent musical figure (and genius) for the majority of his life - 50 years.

Cohen's music made a dramatic impact on my life. For years, my ringtone was "First We Take Manhattan." I'm such a fan that I'm currently trying to convince my boyfriend to name our one-day child Cohen after this musical messiah (he still says no, but he'll come around). Last week we didn't lose just another performer - we didn't lose a Justin Bieber or a Britney - we lost someone who defined and redefined music; someone who kept outdoing himself when you thought he had already peaked. When someone says music is their life, introduce then to Cohen - he's the definition of the phrase. He's up there with the greats we've lost this year, like Bowie.

Cohen was so deeply devoted to his music and touched so many lives as an artist. It's been a rough week for his fans in coping with his sudden death. But, what was so inexplicably perfect about this, is that his magnum opus came at the end of his life. He was always improving on his music. When the world thought that Cohen had reached his ceiling, he would shatter expectations and bring us something so much better that we learned not to underestimate his work. He got to see his best album gain success right before his death, and knowing how hard he worked on it - how much time and energy he put towards pushing this last album - I'm glad that, if there had to be a last Cohen album, that You Want It Darker is it.

All in all, Cohen danced to the end of love, and life, with success, passion, and dignity. He will be greatly missed.