I haven’t always been tall. As a matter of fact, I was a very average size for my entire childhood into my early teens. I was always in the middle row of the class picture, always a guard on the basketball court. In the seventh grade, my doctor told me that I was done growing. I was 5’4”, the exact same height as my mom. On average, girls stop growing around that age, so this was likely to be the case for me. However, in this aspect, I proved to be the outlier. I grew another four inches eighth-gradeade year, followed by another three freshman year. Growing seven inches in two years is (without a doubt) a big change. Suddenly, my limbs are much longer than I remembered. I couldn’t seem to place my elbows. I remember waking up in the morning and looking down at my toes and being amazed at how far away they were. This change was a very valuable one for me in terms of athletics. I was able to play on the varsity basketball team as a freshman, and I started in games by my sophomore year. Because I had been trained as a guard, I could dribble the ball fairly well and presented a mismatch for other teams, defensively. Still, when I was simply running down the court, I felt like I was riding a wave, and with the ball, I was an even bigger tornado: full of knobby knees and sharp elbows.
My height suddenly changed my running as well. In running, longer legs are good, but long torsos are a little less good. I competed in cross country and track during high school and was always about a head taller than most of my teammates. Sometimes pictures got a little hard, but even here there were advantages. For instance, I loved being able to see over an enormous crowd of runners during a meet and pick out exactly who I would pass next.
The most impactful way my height affected me has definitely been my self-image. The years I grew was the time when we were all trying to figure out who we are and who we will be. If you’re like me, you are also trying to figure out how to wear mascara and how to stop wearing monochromatic outfits. Being a cool 5’11” as a 15-year-old girl definitely adds an element of difficulty. Everyone has their struggles (especially at that age!), but the way I handled my awkwardness with my height was by trying to blend into the background. Word to the wise, this is very difficult if you are taller than 99.7% of all women. Even when I convinced myself that I had finally managed to “become normal,” people still commented. My invisibility cloak was stripped each and every time someone commented about my size or asked how the weather was up there. This single physical aspect made me stick out, but as I grew older, I realized the value in this irregularity. Being tall made it easier to stick out in other ways like in the classroom or on the court. I figured if people were going to notice me, they might as well notice my jump shot as well as my height. Nowadays, I feel like I have a better understanding of where my elbows are and also who I am as a person. While it will always be a work in progress, I am thankful for my height for pushing me from the background, and for helping make me the person I am today.
Image Credit: Feature, John McLaughlin, 2