Her life changed just over 10 years ago. After a bad car accident, Giulia Lamarca could no longer walk. Making courage her medicine, Giulia began to see life from a new dimension.
Without fear we would not need courage, and without courage we would not overcome the fears that limit us. They are two sides of the same coin. So I would start by asking you to tell us about a moment when you were afraid, and in what form you found the courage to overcome it.
I was afraid the day I woke up and couldn’t feel my legs, I found the courage because I had realized that either I was coming back to life or I was giving up everything: the streets were these two, no middle way.
The choice was easy, I wanted to live.
Traveling you found the freedom and happiness that a bad accident in 2011 had taken away. How did seeing distant places help you to be reborn?
It helped me to understand that not the whole world is the same, here you could be looked at badly and elsewhere not. There are countries where the judgment of others is much less strong than in Italy. In addition, I needed to rebuild myself and move away from the memory that everyone had of me: it helped me rebuild my image.
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You and Andrea started climbing thousands of steps in your first tries and, as you admitted yourself, it was also a challenge to prove that you could do it even though it seemed impossible. What are the seemingly impossible challenges for Giulia Lamarca today?
Today the biggest challenge remains fashion: I think it is one of the most closed sectors regarding disability, along with the world of travel. Sometimes I feel defeated, but never say never.
One of your recent posts that has thrilled me the most is wishing your husband for your seventh anniversary. You shared the conversation where he convinced you to respect his decision to want to spend a life by your side. In your story, how important was love to overcome the fear of being born again?
A lot. I often say on social media that he chose me and I don’t have to thank him for that, but just because I want people to understand that choosing a person with disabilities can be normal. But I think love like that is rare, and it’s rare to be able to live a rebirth with a person.
He stood beside me in this, he saw me reborn and he left me the time and the way to do it.
Let’s talk about your beautiful Sophie, who you’ve already shown the world to. You’ve written repeatedly that you want her free. Free from what, exactly?
I mean that I want to open all the possible doors to her and then let her choose: for me freedom means choosing and knowing. To have given her the opportunity to experience different things is to have opened her horizons.
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How did you overcome the practical and mental obstacles of bringing a newborn baby around the world?
Facing them; thought is always stronger than action. But if you start, things come naturally: we took our fears, we rationalized them and then we said "let’s try".
If Sophie comes to you one day and says she’s afraid, what’s your advice to your little girl?
That it is normal and right, but that it must not be immobilized by fear: it must use it as an engine and motivation.
Illustration by Gloria Dozio - Acrimònia Studios
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