Day 45: Where you ever insulted?

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 45: Where you ever insulted?

Was I ever insulted? LOL well, that’s a good one.

Standing 5 foot 10 inches (1.75 meters) in my socks, I’ve suffered insults for as long as I can remember. For the longest time, my nickname was the Eiffel tower, the knitting needle, the bean stoke … and that was my family calling me that.

Because of these frequent insults, I began to stoop, hoping to appear shorter. Of course, that didn’t work.

How did I overcome this ‘handicap’ ...  a friend convinced me to join her in a modeling course. I didn’t feel much like it, but enthusiastic as she was, she didn’t want to go alone. So I gave in.

The course ran over six months and we learned everything from how to stand, to how to walk, turn, sit, and how to show off an outfit to its best advantage. I was fairly successful getting runway contracts, where I met girls my size or even taller, and my self-consciousness about my height slowly disappeared.

Another factor that contributed to seeing my height as a positive vs. a negative was the fact nobody messed with me. If ever a man or a woman gave me a hard time, all I had to do was stand up. Invariably I was taller than them and they soon backed off.

That’s not to say that I was immune to insults or recognizing the down points of being tall. With long limbs, try finding a pants or blouses that fit. If the waistband of the pants fitted, the legs were too short. If the legs were long enough, the waistband was too big. The same with shirts. If the body fitted, the length of the sleeves were too short, if the sleeves were long enough, the shirt hung on me like a tent. As a result, I started wearing men’s shirts.

Another down point of being tall was finding a job. Believe it or not, but quite a few managers and directors feel threatened by someone taller than them.

I remember this one interview where I was shown into the boardroom where the managing director was already sitting at the table. I sat across from him, we started talking, and everything went fine. So fine in fact that I thought the job was in the bag. And then it happened … the man got up, I got up, and standing side by side he was at least a foot shorter than me. We looked like an olive and a toothpick. Needless to say, I never heard from him again.

So, to all those people who wear super high heels in an attempt to appear taller … being tall isn’t all that great.

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