The actor, who died last week, carried the burden of representing the meritocratic Black boy par excellence, and made it look easy.

Some of the greatest lessons about growing up and what it means to be an adult I learned from—or, rather, through—Theo Huxtable. The middle-child sibling on The Cosby Show, Theo was a conduit for the modern teenager in the ’80s and ’90s: a sense of entitlement and arrogance permeating the usual haplessness that accompany coming of age.

I’ve been dreading the thought of having to write these words all week because it makes the unfathomable real.”