Wednesday, November 01, 2006
A Jolly Yellow Giant
That is what I feel like sometimes here in New York. What? A giant at 5'4? You'd be amazed at how many short people there are in NY. I can actually look over peoples' heads on the subway sometimes.
I've always thought of my height as average. Way back when, in the 1990s sometime, I remember reading somewhere that the average American woman was 5'4 and 130 lbs. It always made me feel good about myself that I was of average height and skinnier than most.
I remember the time in third or fourth grade (can't remember since I had the same teacher for both grades) on school picture day, when we were split into groups of "tall," "medium," and "small." We then arranged ourselves within the groups into descending height order. That was the first year I ever got into the "medium" category. Granted, I was the shortest person in the medium category, but that medium title meant a lot to a 9 year old girl who was shorter than her 7 year old brother (actually, I think we were the same height then...he didn't surpass me until I was in 5th grade).
Even among my Asian friends, I've never been tall. Certainly, I've never been short short, but I've always been average. Average height, average grades, average income. Average, average, average.
In New York, national averages don't mean much. It's a completely different world. Incomes are higher (in general), housing prices are higher (drastically), even McDonald's is more expensive in the City than in the outter boroughs (and I'm not joking).
Up until I moved to New York, I only knew of one guy (non-Asian) that was my age and shorter than me (by a hair) - my ex-roommate's ex-boyfriend's best friend, Lance. Suffice it to say, he compensated by driving over 100mph on a regular basis and was training to be a highway patrolman (ironic, anyone?).
I even had a former boss refer to me when talking to my other coworkers as "really tall." He actually estimated me to be 5'7. Funny, because the girl he was talking to was 5'7 or 5'8 and she's several inches taller than me (very noticeable). My boss was even slightly taller than me I think (although maybe not when I had heels on).
My darling friend (and mother to be) Kathleen put it best (not about me but about another friend of hers) - "she reads tall." It refers to people (not just women) who look taller than they are, usually because of size (slimming is also elongating), posture (K's friend was probably a dancer like she was), and overall carriage. Hopefully I fall into the category of people that read tall instead of people that just look distorted.
But for now, I'll just look down at the heads below and smile and smug smile (inside of course).
I've always thought of my height as average. Way back when, in the 1990s sometime, I remember reading somewhere that the average American woman was 5'4 and 130 lbs. It always made me feel good about myself that I was of average height and skinnier than most.
I remember the time in third or fourth grade (can't remember since I had the same teacher for both grades) on school picture day, when we were split into groups of "tall," "medium," and "small." We then arranged ourselves within the groups into descending height order. That was the first year I ever got into the "medium" category. Granted, I was the shortest person in the medium category, but that medium title meant a lot to a 9 year old girl who was shorter than her 7 year old brother (actually, I think we were the same height then...he didn't surpass me until I was in 5th grade).
Even among my Asian friends, I've never been tall. Certainly, I've never been short short, but I've always been average. Average height, average grades, average income. Average, average, average.
In New York, national averages don't mean much. It's a completely different world. Incomes are higher (in general), housing prices are higher (drastically), even McDonald's is more expensive in the City than in the outter boroughs (and I'm not joking).
Up until I moved to New York, I only knew of one guy (non-Asian) that was my age and shorter than me (by a hair) - my ex-roommate's ex-boyfriend's best friend, Lance. Suffice it to say, he compensated by driving over 100mph on a regular basis and was training to be a highway patrolman (ironic, anyone?).
I even had a former boss refer to me when talking to my other coworkers as "really tall." He actually estimated me to be 5'7. Funny, because the girl he was talking to was 5'7 or 5'8 and she's several inches taller than me (very noticeable). My boss was even slightly taller than me I think (although maybe not when I had heels on).
My darling friend (and mother to be) Kathleen put it best (not about me but about another friend of hers) - "she reads tall." It refers to people (not just women) who look taller than they are, usually because of size (slimming is also elongating), posture (K's friend was probably a dancer like she was), and overall carriage. Hopefully I fall into the category of people that read tall instead of people that just look distorted.
But for now, I'll just look down at the heads below and smile and smug smile (inside of course).
# posted by ange : 10:19 AM
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