Gia - The Shooting Star

´´Life and death, energy and peace. If I stop today it was still worth it. Even the terrible mistakes I made and would have unmade if I could. The pains that have burned me and scarred my soul, it was worth it, to have been allowed t walk where I’ve walked, which was hell on earth, heaven on earth, back again, into, under, far in between, through it, and above’’ – Gia

Once upon a time, there was a girl. Brown savage hair, expressive eyes, and with a way of not caring that would save you or kill you. This not caring attitude cost her something valuable. Her story gave me strength, hope, and a feeling of, perhaps if I met her, things would have turned out different. Or probably not. When you decide you were born to die young, isn’t much another can do, right? The world was not prepared but nor was she.

Gia Marie Carangi. ‘’Too beautiful to die, too wild to live’’. The first to be considered a supermodel in the world. A shooting star, one day she was there, the next one she wasn’t. Gia was 17 when her life turned into something she never imagined. I was 22 when I ‘’met’’ her.

Do you know when a person is so out of the box that you just want to be with her, touch her, feel her? Everyone felt like that towards Gia, and I do too. As the ‘’Bowie Kid’’ she was, that attention was an addiction, and with that addiction, more joined. Her life seemed a fairytale, everybody in the Fashion Industry wanted to work with this girl, every girl and boy wanted to date her. Gia was in the moment like one else at the time, but too soon, everything turned to a nightmare.

Gia died at the age of 27. Ironic, now that I realize. It’s said that Gia considered herself a Rockstar, dying at the of 27 does let you in into the ‘’27 Club’’. She died of AIDS, at the time it was a huge taboo and for fact, no one knew when she died, that she was dying, or that she was at the hospital. When her drug addiction, more specifically heroine, got worse, Gia vanished, and no one asked questions. Apparently, Gia was not that important.

Once upon a time, Gia was part of the same exact planet I live in. She was kind, like me. A David Bowie fan like me. Her personality got her into trouble, like me, sometimes. Life was harsh for her and she couldn’t handle it. I did.

You’re probably curious by now, why I chose Gia as a woman who inspired or taught me something. When I first present her, she seems nothing but a spoiled irresponsible girl who had everything and didn’t know what to do that for whatever reason it was. Well she is as important to me as any other wen who also inspire me and have way more happier life stories. But I felt presenting Gia, since a lot of people have no idea who she was, and I need you to know her, because she was special. She really was.

Gia, for instance, teach us how empathy matter. Nowadays I talk about empathy like I breathe, but it is a word that should be present in all of hour hearts. I could be Gia; we all could be Gia. We could have been the ones who didn’t know what to do, who were so lost that living fast was the only way possible of doing this. Remember when I said that everybody wanted her, to touch her, to feel her? It’s true, but when a person only wants us in that way, it’s not nice. Loneliness will strike, hit us and it will break us. We are more than a body, a pretty face, we have feelings and we should be respected by it.

Gia was so aware of that and of how she was treated merely because of her looks, that even the woman she loved the most, disappointed her. Because you don’t go for the girl who’s to be considered too much. The junkie.

We are all human; we all deserve a second chance. Most of the times we give more. Would’ve hurt for someone, to listen to her, to her silent but well visual scream?

Once upon a time, a story with a non-happy ending happened. We learn here that it will hurt, we learn about pain, we learn about bad choices that end lives. If you know someone that it is struggling, don’t leave or try to get real help. And when that help doesn’t work, find another way. Sometimes it’s too late, but you were there. No one deserves to go knowing no one cared enough to stay or to even try.

Gia was a one of a kind. I am here telling her story, and after this, I hope you feel the urge to know her even more. She was a shooting star once, and then she joined all the other stars. I bet she shines the most.