Height

[twirlgrrl]

I used to be 6 feet tall on my right leg, 5'11" and 1/4 on my left. Now I think I've shrunk down closer to 5'11" but when asked I still say I'm 6 feet tall. It sounds better! LOL.

I like being tall, but I didn't always. It was kindof weird growing up, and I cared whether my boyfriends were taller than me so it ruled a lot of cute guys out. I have terrible posture, partly because of my scoliosis, partly because one leg is longer than the other, and partly because I hated being conspicuous. It was really, really hard to find pants that were long enough when I was younger--you can always hem pants that are too long but you can't add material to the bottom of short ones. But overall I am glad now. I think that I developed more of a "presence" or a stronger personality because I am tall. No one messes with me on the street. I take a lot of things for granted, like being able to see at concerts (though I always feel bad about obstructing someone else's vision.) I can gain 5, 10, 15 pounds without looking any different. It's still hard to fit into airplane seats--my knees press against the seat in front of me--but I think of being tall as an advantage, especially interpersonally.

How tall are you? Bonus question: How do you feel about your height?

Comments

[raw-julie.livejournal.com]

I am 5'6".
I never really thought much about my height, so I guess that means I am ok with it?
Dave is 6' and for me that is perfect. I love tall men. But, you didn't ask for that info, lol.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

For me, 6' is barely tall enough, so I'm glad the 6-footers seem tall to you. Evan is 6'4" which is perfect for me! :)

[summerbluerain.livejournal.com]

I range anywhere from 4'9" to 4' 11" depending on who is doing the measurements. I like being short for the sake of being short but this world is not made for short people. Myabe that is why I like Montessori so much.. all of the tiny furniture makes me feel like a GIANT! :P

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

I love it! I love tiny furniture because it seems like a miniature world.

[the-changeling.livejournal.com]

Just like you!

Although, I suspect I'm only 6 foot in my dreams now, as I'm older and you shrink.

but I'll _always_ be six foot.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Wow! I didn't know we were height sisters! Cool.

[eac.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'6", which means that I'm slightly taller than average height, but I'm a titan compared to my Mom's Italian family. She and her parents averaged about 5 feet. Once (as a child) I understood that I'm not really tall outside the Fortunato family, I was envious of taller people. As an adult, I'm more or less content with my height.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

When I was 12 I hit 5'7" and I thought that would be perfect. I knew I wouldn't stay there though.

[ninjalie.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'10 and I usually love being tall, as I get older though there's some thing about it I start to dislike. I hate that I can't wear high heels without feeling like a giant. I feel like everyone is uncomfortable around me when I wear them. It also annoys me finding pants the fit well, as you may know. My torso is also really long so shirts never fit me either!

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I never wear heels. Ever. But it's much easier to find pants that are long enough now than it was back in the days when I had to walk to school barefoot in the snow both ways and such.

[ninjalie.livejournal.com]

Ah my pants fitting problem is more along the lines of finding something that fits my hips than it is finding something long enough. I probably wouldn't be able to torture myself enough to wear heels even if I were shorter.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

P.S. I envy your long torso! At least you have a waist! I never had one--built like a box.

[gen-here.livejournal.com]

I laugh when the doctor's office asks me that. Like you, I go with what I was at my tallest (5'8"), but the office of my surgeon when I had my GB out measured me at 5'6" and the nurse about FREAKED OUT when the difference was so great. I have kyphosis -as well as scoliosis and lordosis, but the kyphosis is what was treated. I technically should have had surgery, but my mom worried about what all that metal and spinal fusion would have done to my ability to birth children... and then, you know, pick them up off the floor. So I was braced down to 44* from 66*. The doctor I saw for that guestimated that I would be about 5'11" with the surgery or a naturally straight spine.

Anyway, that's why the nurse freaked out - that I have kyphosis and now I'm 2" shorter. Really, I think part of it was that I was walking around bent over in pain so often with the GB and just had a baby a bit before that, but now when I'm asked I usually say "that's the question of the hour - somewhere between 5'6" and 5'8"..."

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Wow, scoliosis, kyphosis and lordosis, that's a lot! Do you feel pain or imbalance from any of that? I feel out of balance and strained a lot now. Makes me wish I'd had the back brace and/or the surgery, but I was too terrified (and vain) to do that as a teenager.

Remember Deenie?

[gen-here.livejournal.com]

I did a book report on Deenie when I started wearing the brace - more for the comfort of my classmates, as I had the full Milwaukee brace with the neck ring and everything.

I still remember one comment from my favorite teacher at the time. She said, "It was such a good thing that you got your brace the same time David got his retainer - it really helped ease the transition for him."

For HIM? Really? He could close his mouth! I could barely sit in a chair and needed help if I fell over!

Anyway...

I have a lot of pain. I've adjusted - and as seems my pattern lately, I just develop pains elsewhere that are a billion times worse to make me forget it. I could seriously hire a live-in chiropractor if I could afford it. I would go up to twice weekly in SD, and the pain started getting less intense, but it's always there. The lordosis and scoliosis are both really minimal - I want to say in the teens to low twenties. But the kyphosis is the most noticeable - even now. I've never been overly graceful, so I don't know if that's because of this curvature or just because of me =)

I'll have to try and find one of the pictures of me in the brace. I just gave the brace away (to the orthotist's clinic - they use the parts for people who can't afford their own) the day after mom's funeral while we were in Chicago. I think I took a picture of that, too... but it wasn't complete (the bar that went across my chest and had pads on each breast bone to straighten me up that way had been removed before the majority of the other bracing was finished).

[alexisyael.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'4" which is supposedly average for North American women, but feels kinda short in reality.

It's odd, M is 6' and one of my best friends in college was too, and while I know I'm significantly shorter than that, I don't *feel* shorter. I feel like I am taller than what I actually am. (And I do NOT wear heels, pretty much ever, so it isn't that.) It kinda offends me when I can't reach things, b/c I should be able to!

My mom is the shortest of her sibs, at 5'7" My dad is one of the shortest of his sibs, at 5'8". My (maternal) half sister is under 5' (she claims to be exactly 5 feet now, but was 4'11" when we were growing up and *I don't think so!*). She's very short, so I might have felt taller than normal b/c of that -- I'm closer to our mom's height than she is.
\
Oh -- and I almost always have to hem pants or live with them being too long. PITA!

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

It's so fun to know how tall my LJ friends are! I feel like I know you better. I feel like you're taller than that too. Big personality. :)

[alexisyael.livejournal.com]

:D true dat!

[slinksgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'4". I used to lie and say that I was 5'3" because then I wasn't "average". I'm always so scared of being "average" because then it means that I blend in with everyone else. I am ok with my height, I guess. It is what it is.

Although I am much shorter than you, I have wickedly long legs. (Example: my brother is a foot taller than me and my legs are longer than his). I hear you on the airplane seat pain!

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Wow on the long legs, and also the fear of being average--I find that last one interesting. I think I wished to be average, to blend in, a lot when I was younger. My mom used to get so exasperated with me because I kept saying I wanted to be (and look) "normal." I don't feel that way anymore, but as a teen I knew I would never be perceived as average, largely because I was so tall, and of course the grass is always greener...

[tellinellen.livejournal.com]

i'm 5'4". well i mean i haven't checked lately, but that's what i think i am.

i see everyone is saying it's average but i feel kind of short. maybe because men are taller? i think i feel....... shlubby around people who are really tall and thin. like, i don't want to be tall and thin but there's something about it that makes me feel like technically they're one up on me somehow. i also get a bitchy feeling when i see a tall woman wearing heels. i'm like AREN'T YOU HIGH UP ENOUGH?!?!

ahem.... of the four people i have adored in my adult lifetime two are right at my height and two are significantly taller. each situation has its advantages and disadvantages.... so i guess it is good to have one of each ;D

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree that it is good to have one of each! :D

I am fascinated and intimated by really tall thin women who wear heels. It seems so ballsy. I think I am mostly envious of their skinniness because tall fat women usually don't wear heels. The skinny ones feel OK calling attention to themselves, and I am simultaneously irritated and envious of that.

[leviathaen.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'11"

I like being tall. The whole complex that shorter men have while dating is pretty obnoxious though. I've noticed that Dylan starts to distance himself from me out in public if I am wearing heels (he too is 5'11"). I like all the points you made though, I fully agree!

The only thing I REALLY hate about my height, the fact that I wear SIZE TWELVE shoes. Boo. Granted, it does not take height to give you big feet.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, I should have mentioned shoe size in this post! I used to wear a 10, and that wasn't too bad, but I'm mostly an 11 1/2 or 12 now too, and it's a pain in the butt. I don't think my feet look particularly huge on my body, but it's a lot harder to find cute shoes. Most of the shoes I really lust after stop at size 11. ;;

[gen-here.livejournal.com]

I am with you. My feet grew in R's pregnancy - I had to buy a pair of men's Adidas because they (Kohl's - we were limited in SD) didn't have women's shoes big enough for me.

[(Anonymous)]

Shoes are the bane of my existence. And yes, all cute shoes seem to only go up to a size 11.

Dylan and I went to his sister's wedding last year in NJ - 6+ hours from home. Guess what I forgot? Dress shoes. I had to buy a pair of size 11 and try to deal with it. They hurt so badly I had to hide my feet under the table and try and keep them off as much as possible. I still have scars on my feet from them! If it were a casual wedding it would have been no big deal, but this was a ritzy and pretty formal affair. I felt like such an idiot. Oh, not to mention his sister is 4'8" and I had to take pictures with her. They made me bend way down. lol

[leviathaen.livejournal.com]

Oops. That was me.

Oh, and I also meant in my original reply that some men have a complex, I didn't intend to imply that all did. Oops again.

[f1ymetothemoon.livejournal.com]

5'7"ish. I've lost about an inch with age and weight. I wish I were an inch or two taller, but I guess I'm average, and I feel average.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

Average seems nice to me--you can be ninja and get away with stuff.

[peachyc.livejournal.com]

Another 5'4"er. I would like to be a little taller. Most of the men I've been with have been on the shorter size which I don't mind at all. I had that one tall husband and sometimes when we would get in heated fights I would feel kind of intimidated by him. Maybe I would have just been intimidated by him because of how mad he would get.

I have a handful of close 6' woman in my life and they are all awesome and have that certain 'presence' that you mentioned.

[twirlgrrl.livejournal.com]

You have a 'presence' because of your big ol' brain. :)

[lovingalien.livejournal.com]

5"5.I like to wear heels sometimes because I want to be like you ;)