Long before August 22, 2019, when Zack turned our world upside down in the most egregious way possible, Gia had been on a downward spiral of her own. It was November of 2018 when, during a random spot check of her phone, Zack walked into our room with a look of fear on his face like nothing I’d ever seen. He’d found that she’d Googled, “I don’t want to live anymore” and “I want to kill myself.”

Our world came to a frozen halt!

Prior to his suicide, Gia had been fighting a darkness of her own for years, at the heart of which were depression, anxiety, and PTSD stemming from the unsettled relationship with her “real dad” and the subsequent fallout his girlfriend and her daughter bestowed upon her. “Girlfriend” is the highly skilled and calculated “first do no harm” nurse THING with an agenda that’s seeing its way to fruition as I write this. They did a number on her, which is still a source of unrest for her to this day, as not only is he still with her, but he’s planning to marry her.

Meanwhile, her years at St. Mark’s were spent moving in and out of a tribe of girls that only perpetuated her depression. “The Squad,” as they called themselves, were and still are clustered together like herpes blisters to bolster these infectious beliefs:

🔪 That being popular is the only power available to them.

🔪 That said popularity and power are directly linked to the societal insinuation that: “In order to be popular, and therefore powerful, you MUST be pretty and thin, have JUST the right shade of skin, and oh, yah … you gotta have LOTS of STUFF!”

🔪 That the most desirable and valuable sources of the power they seek are the truly feminine attributes: “The more physically developed, naturally gifted, talented and intelligent another girl is, the more dangerous her threat”.

🔪 That cruelty is a necessary evil in pursuit of “the power and position” within the hierarchy of a group.

🔪 That shunning, ostracizing, mocking, and humiliating any female whose naturally powerful attributes pose a threat to their own popularity and power by exposing, via comparison, their LACK of naturally powerful attributes, is the most effective way of reducing the other girl’s power.

🔪 That the “lower status” girls are typically the kindest ones, with the most effortless demeanors, and, therefore, most likely to just stand back and be trampled on by a pack of desperate loser TRASH.

LONG story short …

“The Squad” could neither stand NOR tolerate her lingering presence, much less allow her to enjoy any security within the group. Her genuine likability, kind heart, natural beauty, intelligence, effortless athleticism, more developed physique, and “affluence” by virtue of her family were threats to the popularity and power they so desperately craved amongst their bottom-feeding, loser selves.

THEY WERE JEALOUS CUNTS WHO COULDN’T HANDLE HER SHADOW, SO THEY HAD TO FIND A WAY TO LEVEL THEIR VERY SPARSE LITTLE PLAYING FIELDS BY LEVELING HER!

Wow, that’s harsh Cat! They were young girls who probably didn’t know better.

NOPE! Wrong answer! By this point in their lives, they most certainly knew better and, likewise, knew exactly what they were doing! For the record, a few of their pig-like, “let’s relive high school vicariously through our daughters,” white-trash, day-drinking, pot-smoking, pleather-wearing, titties-and-asses-hanging-out-all-over-social-media, “making out with other moms in nightclubs” mothers actually supported, if not instilled, the “do what you must to ascend to the top” mindsets into their daughters’ psyches from a very young age. Lol, one hasn’t lived until they’ve actually heard a sixth-grade TWOT of a girl say to the carload of other sixth graders packed into your SUV on the way home for a Friday-night sleepover:

My mom said that the new girl’s family is VERY rich, her grandparents live in a mansion, and that I should try and make friends with her so that SHE can make friends with her mom so my DAD can try and get their business.

Umm, really? It’s beyond pukeworthy, but also? ABSOLUTELY TRUE! These are the kind of “white-collar” trash bag families my daughter was associating with.

But I’ve digressed …

Yesterday, I finally got to the bottom of something that’s literally been eating her alive. As it turns out, her stunningly beautiful face and very developed physique had become more of a problem for “the Squad” than we’d suspected. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen your already broken daughter just staring at her plate and fighting through that mental gauntlet so many of us fall prey to:

I’m hungry, but maybe I shouldn’t eat this, because after all, I’m just a huge cow with gigantic legs that are twice as big as Taylor’s.

That’s right, people, turns out Gia has had a dragon of her own circling her fragile heart. Fortunately, though, she talks to me about everything, albeit some days more than others. Now that I think of it, both my kids talk to me about everything, and eventually I get to the bottom of all their truths. With each day that passes, I’m learning more about the self-sabotaging voices she’s been fighting inside her mind, and as we talked through the war she was having with her food yesterday, she finally spilled these sobering words:

Mom, the thing is, I hate the way I look. I hate my curves and hate being so tall. And Mom, I never told you this, but last summer when I was at a Squad sleepover, we were upstairs, and Taylor started making fun of how much bigger my legs were than hers. She said, “Look everyone! Two of MY legs equals ONE of Gia’s!” Then she pointed out how much bigger my legs were than EVERYONE’S, and they all started laughing. THEN she started talking about my big, huge chest, and they started laughing even harder, and I felt like dying inside, and wanted to cry, but I couldn’t. They were supposed to be my friends Mom, but NO ONE stood up for me! Not even MJ! I wanted to call you to come pick me up, but I didn’t. I HATE MY BODY! Why DO my legs have to be so big? Maybe I just need to eat less?

And there you have it, folks! It was a cruel and heartless CUNT bitch move! After all that my daughter had done for worthless sewer rat “Tae Mae,” the only way she could make herself feel bigger was to bring my daughter down to her “giant” knees. When I imagine my beautiful Mona Lisa sitting there surrounded by “her tribe,” the girls who were supposed to stand up for her—not only against the world, but against each other if necessary—in yet another “circle of abuse,” it makes me literally want to puke. It was her very own “Spic And Span,” and it was unacceptable!

I was infuriated beyond comprehension at first, but quickly remembered that I needed to keep calm and control my reaction. So, I took a deep breath, thought things through, and this was my response:

Gia, I hear and understand you. I have been where you are and felt these same feelings, and I’m sorry that happened to you. It was unacceptable, BEYOND untrue, but damaging, nonetheless. But going forward, if you are to rise above this, you CANNOT worry about other peoples’ opinions. Remember: What other people think of you is none of your business! Any cruel disregard for your heart, emotions, and feelings is about THEM, not you, because in all their pathetic weakness, those “words” are ALL they have to slay you with. THEY HURT YOU BECAUSE THEY FEAR YOU! And remember this: You’re a queen, too, my beautiful little girl – a lioness perched on a hill! You DO NOT and WILL NOT consider the opinions of pitiful, insignificant, irrelevant, weak herding sheep that laugh at, mock, or torment you just to gain power, because you are MY daughter, and you are stronger and better than that! We can’t change the past, but we CAN change the future, so here’s what: Finish your breakfast, go get changed, let’s hit the gym today and do the work! Deal?

And so with that, we WILL keep working toward our soul destinations. My daughter is that fighter who will “keep on fighting on,” because she is mine, and that’s what GOOD queens do. Goodnight, everyone!

FIGHT ON FIGHTER!

Some songs arrive at exactly the right moment. For me, for KING & COUNTRY’s “Fight On, Fighter” became a reminder that what hurt you does not get to own you. Your fire is still yours. Your strength is still yours. And however many times life knocks you down, you keep getting back up and showing the world who you are.

Inspired by “Fight On, Fighter” — for KING & COUNTRY