Being Tall
7/30/12
“Six, seven”. That’s what I would say about twice a day when asked how tall I was. I’ve always been tall so over time I had gotten used to and annoyed of this question and I would usually make these feelings evident in the tone of my response. However, it wasn’t the only response I was used to giving. “I don’t have it”. That’s what I would say about twice a day when asked where my homework was. ”C”. That’s what I would say when my friends asked me how I did on the big test. I repeated the same answers over and over again but never really thought about them. Over the past year I began to question these responses and came to the conclusion that they were the wrong answers. I wasn’t lying about my height or my homework, or my grades or my studying habits, but ever since I started to think about these questions I’ve been able to change the answers. I haven’t gotten any shorter or more intelligent but by actually thinking about the question I’ve been able to give the correct answer.
I started to realize that I was being asked the same questions over and over around sixth grade. I wasn’t even thinking about high school back then let alone college and beyond so I still had some time to figure out the right answers to these questions. “Wow do you play basketball?” Teachers would ask as they saw me struggle to fit through the doorway. “Uhh yeah” I would flatly reply. “Why didn’t you study, you knew you had a test”. “I don’t know,” I wasn’t even thinking about what those words meant but it was still just the practice round for the real thing so I still had time to find the right answers. I was explicitly warned when high school rolled around that “it counts now”. It was spelled out to me multiple times that high school was the real deal and even my Freshman grades would count towards college. I was also told that I wasn’t done growing yet and I would only be getting taller. I wasn’t thrilled about either of these facts, but instead of using my height to
“Six, seven”. That’s what I would say about twice a day when asked how tall I was. I’ve always been tall so over time I had gotten used to and annoyed of this question and I would usually make these feelings evident in the tone of my response. However, it wasn’t the only response I was used to giving. “I don’t have it”. That’s what I would say about twice a day when asked where my homework was. ”C”. That’s what I would say when my friends asked me how I did on the big test. I repeated the same answers over and over again but never really thought about them. Over the past year I began to question these responses and came to the conclusion that they were the wrong answers. I wasn’t lying about my height or my homework, or my grades or my studying habits, but ever since I started to think about these questions I’ve been able to change the answers. I haven’t gotten any shorter or more intelligent but by actually thinking about the question I’ve been able to give the correct answer.
I started to realize that I was being asked the same questions over and over around sixth grade. I wasn’t even thinking about high school back then let alone college and beyond so I still had some time to figure out the right answers to these questions. “Wow do you play basketball?” Teachers would ask as they saw me struggle to fit through the doorway. “Uhh yeah” I would flatly reply. “Why didn’t you study, you knew you had a test”. “I don’t know,” I wasn’t even thinking about what those words meant but it was still just the practice round for the real thing so I still had time to find the right answers. I was explicitly warned when high school rolled around that “it counts now”. It was spelled out to me multiple times that high school was the real deal and even my Freshman grades would count towards college. I was also told that I wasn’t done growing yet and I would only be getting taller. I wasn’t thrilled about either of these facts, but instead of using my height to