Rest In Peace. xx

The first time I saw you was when you were wearing that outfit, in Stand By Me. I was about seven years old, so I don't really know why I was watching that film at that age, but I was. Since then I loved you. I used to think I was going to grow up and marry you. This was around 2002, and I was only young, so I didn't know that you wasn't alive. I used to watch Stand By Me nearly every weekend, as well as Explorers when I discovered it. When I found out that you passed away before I was even born, I couldn't believe it. Knowing that you were never going to make another film or do another interview made me so upset, and it still does.


I'm fifteen years old now, and still miss River. It's weird how I miss someone I didn't even know. I mean, he died before I was even born. But it still feels like I miss him. I spend so much of my time looking stuff up about him and watching his films. He's kind of changed the way I see things, and see life. Sounds stupid, but true. I used to look at life like nothing really mattered and you just had to get on with it, ofcourse you do have to just get on with things, but I see everything so differently now, it's too hard to explain.
I sort of only rediscovered River at the beginning of this year, I'm not sure that makes sense, but this year is when I started to think about River again. When I started back at school in September, in English we were doing about animal cruelty and animal welfare. Doing about this made me feel so sick, the way people killed and slaughtered animals for their fur and to eat them. Just thinking about it gives me a horrible lump in my throat. After doing about this, for a while I was thinking about turning vegetarian. Every time I ate meat I felt ill. Then reading about River being a vegan, and how strongly he felt about it, made me decide I wanted to be a vegetarian. So he has even changed the way I eat.
It strange how somebody who isn't even present in the world can make you change for the better.

Vegetarianism is a link to perfection and peace.

You don't get many celebrities like River, that want to change the world and make it a better place. He  bought up several hundred acres of rain forest in Costa Rica and Brazil, not to develop them, but to make sure they didn't get built on. 
River wasn't even formally educated, but he seems so smart. 
I believe that if he was still alive now he would be one of the best actors around.
Rest In Peace River Phoenix.