“Tall Girl”

Being tall has grown into something I’ve accepted over the years, but it hasn’t always been like that. I’ve always been rather tall for a girl, but was never the tallest growing up. There was always a few girls taller than me at school. To be honest, I liked it that way. Less attention drawn. That was my philosophy. As I got older though, I quickly began to catch up to the girls who were once taller than me. When I caught up to them in height, it didn’t stop there. I began to notice I was slowly growing taller than them. Before I knew it, I was taller than every single one of those girls that I was once shorter than, and suddenly I was not longer able to blend in. I stood out.

Seventh and eighth grade is when I started to realize how tall I really was. As I would walk around the halls I realized that I could see over everyone. At first I wasn’t that bothered by my height, but when I hit high school that quickly changed. I had the idea that I wouldn’t stand out at the ‘tall girl’ this time, because there would be plenty of other girls who would be just as tall as I am. Well, like I said…that was what I THOUGHT. But that was not the reality. In fact, as a freshman I was the tallest girl in the school. I quickly felt out of place and self conscious because all I wanted to do was go unseen and unbothered, like any freshman would. That was not the case though. I constantly felt and saw the stares from people who I had never seen before. It wasn’t just at school that I got looks and questions though. I remember a time specifically during my freshman year when I went to the grocery store and this sweet old lady approached me. “You must play basketball”, she said. This wasn’t an unfamiliar question to me. I had been asked this what seemed like thousands of times before. So of course I responded “Yes”. I thought the conversation would end there, or she would ask me more questions about basketball, but that was not the case. Instead she asked me if I could grab an item off the top shelf for her. I thought to myself for a moment; Doesn’t this stuff only happen in movies? I was glad to help though, and retrieved it for her. In this moment I realized that being tall doesn’t always have to be a bad thing. It sparks conversations and sometimes even comes in assistance to others. Even if I could only help this one lady, it was a win in my books.

Embracing my height has never been easy, but now I can say that I’m glad I stand out in that sense. Being tall has its downsides, but it also has its perks. As I’ve learned to embrace it, I’ve found the beauty in being tall. Either way I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“Tall Lady” by lewishamdreamer is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.