In Memoriam.

Now I don’t claim to be the right person to write this, because I didn’t know the man, and I never even met him. I only know him through some of his work. (If that could be considered knowing.) I am of course talking about the late Robin Williams. This is written in his memory; it is a thank you letter of sorts.

I’d like to preface his by saying that of the many things I am, one of them is an escape artist. Meaning that when I find myself in a bind or a tough situation in general I tend to escape if that means cutting ties, submerging myself into work, or ignoring the world by diving into the many worlds of books, movies or video games; even your own imagination can be an escape. I’ve been escaping reality for as long as I can remember. This is because growing up wasn’t always the easiest thing for me and escaping was.

Most of the Robin Williams movies that I’ve watched for the first time were in a period before Netflix, Facebook, or even Myspace, in the 90’s and early 2000’s. This was the time period of my life where I found myself in elementary school, most of which I found myself getting bullied at school and part of it I found myself getting verbally abused at home. So I would escape because that’s what came naturally to me. At that time my preferred modes of escape were TV/movies and my own imagination, and besides Star Wars my most commonly watched movies were comedies because who doesn’t link to laugh when they’re having a bad day. So I would watch Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Hook… his kid-centric movies. Then as I got older I’d watch Jack, Jumanji, Bicentennial Man. And though my taste in movies matured I still went on to enjoy his style. And I’d laugh and be happy during the time his movies provided; they allowed a brief escape from my reality.

But I didn’t stop watching his movies once my reality changed, it only meant that I didn’t have to rely or use them to make me laugh. I could watch them for the purpose of enjoyment, because I wanted to, I could even watch Robin Williams’ movies for nostalgic reasons.

I wish I could have met you and told you this in person, and sadly now I cannot. But Thank you Robin Williams, for all that you’ve done for me and everyone else that you’ve touched.

O, captain my captain. You Will be missed.

No post script here, not this time.