Wednesday, April 05, 2006

I forgot

that I am tall. I know that sounds odd, and it struck me that way when I realized that I was realizing that fact anew.

I'm just under 5'7. Above average height for a girl. When I was in my all girls' high school, I was taller than about 90% of the class.

But then I went to a recently coed college, where there were 10 times as many men as women, and I work in a predominantly male field. So I became accustomed to being shorter than most of the people I know. To add insult to injury, my youngest son finally passed me in height last fall.

But yesterday, I had to drop a note off at the high school, and I happened to be walking in the building at the same time as a flock of high school girls getting off a bus. I was confused to realize that I was taller than almost all of them. And then I remembered - nothing has changed but my perspective. I think I'm distressed that environment can change my perception so much!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

How odd, I am male, 5' 10" and most of the teenage girls here in Australia seem to tower over me. I am not sure what the average heights are now, but they seem to have increased so much. Of course back home in Scotland I am muich taller than most men, (at least in the central belt industrial areas of Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh.)