Being Tall

Madelyn Malloy

Being the Tallest

Starting in Kindergarten, I was always the tallest amongst all of my classmates, and I would constantly receive comments and remarks about it. Even all of my teachers joined in on the endless remarks about my height, like I was completely oblivious to the fact that I had an unordinary height for my age.

I get my height from my dad, and not only did inherit that, I inherited his appearance. This was another thing that people would comment about. I also was a twelve pound baby at birth, so there was something special bound to happen to me in the future, which was in fact my height. I also was born with scoliosis which was a downside to how big of a baby I was. My growth spurts also made my scoliosis progressively worse.

All the comments and remarks about my height have started approximately in the fourth grade at a five-foot height. Mind you, I always had been the one to help out my teachers so they could decorate their classroom in ¨hard to reach places¨, and before you know it, my assistance became widespread to all the floors where my classes were. At least once every other day teachers had wanted me to help hang up their decorations corresponding with every season, or any holiday, which was annoying, but I also had the opportunity to be called out of my classes which was not bad at all. After a while, I was kind of used to being asked to help out teachers in ¨hard to reach places¨, until the comments came rolling in.

¨Wow, you are so tall,¨ was one of the comments that started this whole ongoing commentary of my four-year middle school series. At first, I did not mind, but after four years of hearing the same remarks repeatedly, it gets tiring, and also frustrating. My favorite one, though is ¨How tall are you, you are so tall for your age, I thought you were in high school.¨ To be honest, I do not really know the exact height I am, unless I go to the doctors, and also how are you supposed to respond to a comment like that? Usually in these types of situations I laugh it off and give the person an approximate height just so I do not feel rude leaving them with an unanswered question.It does become annoying, but I have to admit, I did enjoy the attention a little.

My classmates were not the only ones who were informing me on my height; my family was too. At almost every family gathering I went to, I received at least one comment from each family member regarding the estimation of my age because I was so tall. The estimation of my age ranged from senior in high school to a sophomore in college, which was insane to me because I would think that my family would at least have a sense of what my age is. Toward the end of the day though, my age was clarified to all of the members of my family that thought that I advanced twenty years or so.

Even though many of the obvious remarks I have received from others were annoying, I enjoyed the fact that I looked more mature for my age. There were many ups and downs regarding comments about my height, and although the majority of them were highly irritating, I enjoyed the assumptions of how mature I looked. I also did enjoy the special attention of towering over others and having the ability to laugh at others for how short they were too me. As I started to adapt to my life as towering over everybody, eventually everyone caught up to my height and my confidence and maturity slowly deteriorated because I no longer held the title of ¨Tallest in the Class¨.