I am often surprised at how tall I am. I know, I know, you'd think that would be something you're used to, so why would it be surprising? I don't think about height very much, I'm always this tall, so what's there to think about? As long as I know how many stairs I can safely take at a time and how far away I can leave a drink and still be able to reach it without stretching, what's the big deal?
But I just got up from the desk at the same time that cute girl got up from her desk. And she's tiny! Not like, tiny tiny, but relative to me, and to how tall I thought she was. If asked, I'd've said 5'5" maybe 5'6" but in the side-by-side comparison she's much closer to 5'3" which is pretty small.
I don't think it's such a shock that she's short, I think it's more that I aparently tower over everybody. I wonder what people think of me... "oh, here comes tom. I hate that tall bastard."
or "jeez, here comes that freaking giant" I don't think those things, I've always been this tall. No, no, that's a lie. I was tiny. I was really small. Entering high school I was like 5 foot nothin and weighed maybe a hundred pounds. I was not a big guy. Then, the summer before junior year I grew like I'd been exposed to mutating gamma radiation. I went through three shoe sizes in one summer. All of a sudden I was 6 feet tall, (though I only gained like thirty-five pounds). But so much of my formative years had been spent as a small-(normal?)-sized kid that I still thought about myself that way. I still do most of the time. Which is why I find it so surprising when I can see the top of someone's head.
I don't think less of shorter people. I don't think highly of taller people (ok, pun intended, sorry). But man, how do you go around being so short? I can reach things on the top shelf, I can touch the ceiling standing flatfoot, I can see over a crowd! A girl I knew in college used to think about this, and observed once "if tall people keep getting with tall people, and short people keep getting with short people, pretty soon we'll have a race of giants, and a race of midgets. and then we can beat up on the midgets."
hear hear.
-Tom
recommended download:
Ben Lee, 10 ft tall
5 comments:
Actually there have been studies that, given random selection, the human race will regress to an average height. Chances are that your son will be shorter than you and that 5'3" girl's kids will be taller than she is. Why don't the two of you get together and kill two birds with one stone?
Sometimes I forget about my size too. It's usually when I read the height/weight discription of a criminal and I think to myself, "Man, I wouldn't want to meet that guy in a dark alley." And then I realize that I am that guy.
Donny
if only, if only...but alas, as mentioned earlier, cute girl is getting married...and not to me.
I'm the tallest person in my family. This was reaffirmed at Christmas, when I went head-to-head (actually, back-to-back) with my cousin peter, uncle michael, and uncle jay. I've got them all beat. So now the only worry is Danny, Billy, or possibly my cousin Greg who's shooting up like a weed.
But it's cool, if it ends that way we'll just always pick each other in the basketball games, and dominate.
-Tom
You know Tom, that means that I'm taller than your family! I just thought I'd share that. So if you don't notice people of a shorter stature (well at least not their height) what do you notice about people who are taller than you?
Just thought I'd ask.
:O)
Katiejuice
Of people taller than I, I usually think "wow, I admire them, it must be very difficult to live your life freakishly tall. Their heart will probably explode at an early age from the effort of pumping blood from their feet allllll the way up to their heads."
or something like that ;)
thanks for the comment.
-T
Well, I guess I have that to look forward to. My heart imploding due to the excessive strain of pumping the blood from my toes to my brain. :O)
Hope all is well!
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