Throughout elementary school, my height wasn’t a problem. I worked hard at soccer, raced kids, confident in myself and my abilities. But as I progressed through middle school and entered high school, people began to surpass me in height and the way I viewed myself, and how others treated me changed. On a typical day, there would be someone, either in the halls, in a classroom, or just standing around talking, who would make a comment about my height. They would say, “Ooh, you’re so small!” or “You’re so cute!” or “It’s okay, you’re just fun sized.” Some people would come up, pat my head or put their arm on my head as a headrest, finding it funny, a joke. Through all of this, I don’t think people were aware of what they were doing. And I didn’t tell them. I was too angry at the fact that I was short. Why couldn’t I be taller?

Freshman year, I realized several things that changed how I saw others when they treated me this way, how I viewed myself and my size, and how I chose to handle the situations that I was in. One thing I realized was that it was my choice whether or not I was going to make my height an obstacle. Rather, I could turn it into something that to accept and use to help grow in other aspects of life. Once I came to this realization, I began to see the power that my body had. Instead of seeing my size as a negative thing that I had to live with, I saw it in a positive light, as something that was going to help me throughout my life. As I grew more confident in my body, I raised my expectations for others. For any of the comments that came my way about my size, I would politely set them straight. I expected better treatments from others and myself. The choice to identify with my height, my body, and to raise the bar in my relationships with others as well as myself changed how I viewed the world.

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