Height

[GreigKM]

Meh, 5'6", pale, and I don't care. Then again, that's not 'short' so... Meh. I have no advice on dealing with height issues... Why am I posting in this thread?

[Gap Filler]

Except on days like today, when it's less warm and more so hot it not only smells but feels like Satan's armpit.

[Deedles]

It's the warm place with the dancing and the running around in the park with costumes being a virus in a VR fantasy world.

Except on days like today, when it's less warm and more so hot it not only smells but feels like Satan's armpit.

.. I don't know who to believe! One sounds so lovely, one sonds so scary! ;____;

[JustAName]

Listen to the person for whom temperatures rarely drop below 40 F in the dead of winter, and rarely crack 90 in midsummer.

[theDreamer]

...What is warm?

Is it anything like winds that bite and numb and snow that obscures and catches legs and ice that slips and hurt and hail that pelts and rain that drenches and jaws that snatch?

Cuz if so, fuck that.

[JustAName]

It's the opposite of that.

[theDreamer]

It's the opposite of that.

That EXISTS?!

[JustAName]

Oh, yes. And it's LOVELY.

[Deedles]

OH MY GOD! I must see this "outside", and experience this "warm"! <D

[SPACExJUMPxJOSH]

IM nearly 20 and im 5 6 ¬_¬ all of my hate

[Ollie, don'tcha know!]

I'm also thin and pale. But not in a cool goth/vampire way. I just look constantly ill.

I have tried being sarcastic, but a lot of the time people don't get it. Also, people normally have good intentions and think it's a complement, so I feel bad for replying like that.

I haven't tried TRS's suggestion of just going absolutely mental about it. Could be fun...

For now I'm just trying to hang in there until I can leave school.

[SPACExJUMPxJOSH]

a wild douche bag apears

ollie uses rage

rage uses pain

its super effective

[Phevnil]

I'm about 6'4", but I have always gone to small schools with larger than normal abnormally large populations. I’m tallest, but not by much. There are at least three other people over 6’3”!

[auberginequeen]

image

To be honest, you look like a lovely couple, but I can't help looking at the guy who's to the right (our right) of Aubergine and imagine what he'd look like in some viking armour ....

If that isn't a cue for bad photoshop, I don't know what is.



ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on viking armour, despite being an expert at photoshop, so to all you viking history buffs who are no doubt crying by now... I'm sorry.

[Rikadyn]

image

To be honest, you look like a lovely couple, but I can't help looking at the guy who's to the right (our right) of Aubergine and imagine what he'd look like in some viking armour ....

If that isn't a cue for bad photoshop, I don't know what is.



ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert on viking armour, despite being an expert at photoshop, so to all you viking history buffs who are no doubt crying by now... I'm sorry.

Close enough...

Anyway I'm 6'4 and have never experienced any of this...

Then again it could be the fact I'm not tall and skinny, rather big and tall...

[sdhonda]

Six one.

[Tally]

I tend to be like Siobhan in terms of favouring sarcastic replies. Maybe you could make these height-inquisitive folks uncomfortable in turn. "Why am I so tall? Well..." And start telling them how your parents always dreamed of having a star basketball player so they stretched you out on a rack every night after dinner. Or explain that you have a rare disease that caused you to never develop a strong sense of gravity, so you just kept stretching upwards. Or you could just get a funky tattoo in the middle of your forehead, so that's all they talk about.

In all seriousness, I've had some experience with people saying the same uninteresting thing to me upon meeting me and learning about me (usually it's some tired, clichéd Wizard of Oz reference, upon learning where I grew up), and I've just learned to laugh and say yes, haha, haven't heard that before and gently change the subject so we can talk about something else. So they can learn something else about me and in turn hopefully prove to me that they are actually an interesting, likeable person who, like most of us, just can't help themselves from making foolishly obvious statements now and then but is actually worth talking to in the end.

I mean, if someone says, "Gee, you're really tall," and you just reply blandly (but without malice), "Yes, I sure am," they'll probably realize right away that they sound a bit daft and happily follow your lead to talk about something else.

[Tycherin]

I think the best response to a height-related question like that is something along the lines of, "I'm sorry, I can't read." (Actually, that's a good response for any question. Try it some time.) Seriously, though, it would be ridiculous to walk up to an Asian person and say "Wow, you're really Asian!" Even if you didn't mean any malice or racism by it, it's still a pretty dull, obvious statement.

The moral of this story: when meeting a tall person, say something interesting.

[theDreamer]

And now is an apt time for:

One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in It's a nice day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you alright? At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behaviour. If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months' consideration and observation he abandoned this theory in favour of a new one. If they don't keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working. After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical.

[epocalypse]

Best way is to wear your oddity as a badge of honor. It's part of who you are. I deal with being short in the USA, average in Portugal, Italy and much of europe, and variable elsewhere accordingly. Hell, beyond that I'm built like a hobbit, with hugely outsized feet and torso (and far undersized legs and arms) for my 5'8'' height. And you know what, I'm a GIANT among hobbits.

We're human, dude, and we react to difference, and the fact of the matter is we never learn to be polite about height (in particular height in excess, as we humans consider being tall a good thing, as I'm sure most people who approach you about it do). Enjoy yourself.

[Vigafre]

Woah woah woah. 5'8" is not short in America. 5'8" is a bit below average, but definitely not short.

[LackingSanity]

I'm 5'11", which I know is above average, but I still feel kinda short, because I have a lot of really tall friends.

[Alja-Markir]

6'1"

~Alja~

[James Ether]

I'm about 5'8" to 5'9" so I'm more or less average height all round. I make myself feel taller though by making sure I hang around people who are much shorter than me.

[TheRocket]

I have a photo where I'm as tall as wraith! He's sitting on a stool and I'm standing up in 5inch stillettos. hur hur hur.

Tally, I think it's hilarious that you mention creating a story about why you are so tall. I've actually done that with my "paleness" when questioned about it.

I've had people innocently ask questions or comments, but it is rude nonetheless. You don't go up to an Ethiopian person and say "Man, you are REALLY, REALLY dark. Like... REALLY dark." But apparently it's okay to go "Man, you are REALLY white. Like SUPER pale... can you even go out in the sun?"

This is the summer I will most likely ACTUALLY get a tan. (Pool!!!!) Of course it's the also the summer I'm contracted out to model as Snow White. Go figure.