I began life petite. 5.5lbs and 18" long.Ah yes, I know and was told by many that tall women are so elegant and graceful. Like the Tolkien Elves, their walk is beautiful and they exude an air of command when they enter a room. I wouldn't exchange short for tall but there were times!
Petite was not to be my lot. When I was a little girl, I grew tall but we don't really care about those things. I'm tall, you're short, so what. We just like to play and laugh and imagine. I loved roller skating, jump roping, (especially double-dutch), hop scotch, jacks, tether ball, balance beam, parallel bars, swinging, climbing trees, drawing trees, play dough, play houses...what you look like matters not compared to all that fun! No one notices.
There are those times, however, like when the teacher always puts you in the back row. Back row was for tall kids. I could never stand beside my friends, like Korry Beckstead. She was so pretty. Her face, her hair and she was just the perfect size. They all stood together, my friends, on the front row of short people. Why were my best friends always front row size and I always have to be on the back row?
A time seems to come to all when looks matter more. At this time the dress code changed. Girls had always had to wear a dress to school. Dresses were great living in California. They were cool on those hot days and pretty and easy to fit. But now, new laws allowed girls to wear pants to school. I was excited because even in California there are cold days when our little girl legs would just freeze! Dresses soon were out. All the girls wore pants to school because they could. And, because let's face it, they were comfortable, warm, easier to play on the playground and it seemed more fun.
What wasn't fun was that no one made pant legs or coat sleeves for tall girls with petite weight. My mom would take me to town to try on clothes and I just had to face the fact. My arms and legs were on the back row while my coat sleeves and pant legs were on the front row.
We don't get to choose some things. I wanted to be the perfect size like all my friends. I began to pray at night that I would please stop growing taller. I would curl up in a ball and in the morning though my body ached to stretch, I refrained, fearing I would indeed stretch myself to yet another inch.
Time flew and I didn't grow as tall as I feared, and being a tall woman is much easier than being a tall teen. Sadly however, I'm doomed to wearing flat shoes for life. Sometimes I drool over the pretty high healed shoes. Oftentimes I meet a woman taller than I am and wearing flat shoes. I wonder if her friends were all on the front row and if she dealt better as a kid with her back row size than I did.
Ah yes, I know and was told by many that tall women are so elegant and graceful. Like the Tolkien Elves, their walk is beautiful and they exude an air of command when they enter a room. I wouldn't exchange short for tall but yes, there were times!
