I woke up this morning to the awful news that David Bowie had departed our world to become the starman he was destined to be. There are some people that have such a powerful presence in this world, it feels like they must be immortal. David Bowie was one of those people, and the impact he had on my life was... I don't even know if a word exists that can properly describe the influence he has had on me and who I've become.

My love for David Bowie started when I was eight years old. I had found this movie on Disney Channel that had left me hypnotized. As my bedtime approached, I begged my mom to let me stay up and finish this movie, so we pulled out the couch bed and I watched that movie until the very last second. Without that act of parental leniency, I wouldn't be the person I am today.

Being an eight year old, I didn't really keep track of movie titles or actors. So for years I went about, occasionally wondering about this movie I could only vaguely remember from my youth, until one day in a freshmen science class a group of friends started talking about this film. That was it! That was the film I had been trying to remember in vain for so long! That weekend, I went out and spent what was-- for a high school freshman with no job-- and absurd amount of money on a collector's edition of Labyrinth.



That is where it really took off. I bought every album I could get my hands on-- CDs, special editions, greatest its, vinyl, MP3s-- and started watching every movie of his I could find. I bought t-shirt after t-shirt after t-shirt and wore them with pride. It became a running joke among family and friends-- and eventually even professors-- that I was a David Bowie girl. When people saw a news story about him, they immediately sent it to me. When his songs played on the radio-- a rarity, sometimes, on West Virginia radio stations-- my mom would call me and play it through the phone. I once had a boyfriend ban be from watching or listening to him, because he was jealous.

This picture came up in my Timehop this morning. I'm wearing the same shirt today.

But it was more than just me liking him or his music. His songs and movies somehow found their way into my life when I needed them the most, on multiple occasions. If I was having a particularly bad day, his song would come on the radio. When my grandfather had to have emergency surgery--a surgery that left us unsure if we would ever see him again-- a David Bowie song played on the end credits of a movie in the waiting room. By some strange force of kismet, David Bowie was there for me when it felt like no one else was. David Bowie was, for lack of a better word, the closet to God that I've ever gotten.

Beyond that, David Bowie inspired me to be myself and to love myself and to let my true self shine, something that I still occasionally forget to do. I mean, he was something special. And, as sad as I am, I am comforted by the fact that he meant so much to so many people. By the fact that he left all of this amazing work for us to enjoy in his absence. The world seems to be rotating a little differently today, but hopefully the stars will be out tonight.