At this point in the blog, I’m sure that I have convinced you all that being tall is probably the worst thing that has ever happened to me. From buying clothes to sitting down, everything seems to be a struggle for me. However, although being tall is inconvenient at times, I have grown to love my lengthy legs and air dancer arms and am more confident in my height than I have ever been before. Though I haven’t yet expressed them in depth, there are several perks that tall people ensue.

One of the many perks of being tall is having sports teams beg for you, even if you have no true skill. As stated in my prior blog about field hockey, my high school volleyball team practically begged me to join the team. Even though I had no vertical and couldn’t serve a ball over the net to save my life, I somehow managed to make the varsity team as a sophomore after playing field hockey my freshman year. It took me until my senior year of high school to consistently serve the ball over the net and learn how to sort of jump, and I still got around 7 collegiate volleyball offers. Considering I had only played volleyball for three years, I’m 99% sure a lot of my success had to do with the fact that I’m 6’1 and not 5’2. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t the most skilled person, it just mattered that I barely had to jump in order to get above the net to block and hit, as pictured below.

Image via Karyn Porter

Another perk about being tall is the number of people who tell you that you should be a model, especially when you wear heels. The funniest part is that I’m technically too tall to be a model, with the maximum height for most modeling agencies typically being 5’11. However, even when I look like I just rolled out of bed I still get told that I should be a model. Honestly, there’s something empowering about wearing heels and towering above others. I used to be repulsed by even the thought of heels, but with my growing confidence in my height grew my desire to show others my newfound confidence. There’s something about a tall woman in heels that causes others to turn their heads. I don’t think there’s a word to describe the feeling I get when this happens, but I love it.

Image via Stacey Burnard

Moreover, there’s a ton of little perks to being tall. Although buying jeans can be aggravating because I can only get them online, they’re almost never sold out because most females aren’t 6ft tall. Similarly, when the women’s section at Old Navy was sold out of the jean jacket I had my eye on,  I was so upset until I remembered that they have a tall women’s section that was fully in stock. Even better than clothes, I generally don’t have to worry about wading in pool water because I can usually stand flat footed and still be fully above the water. Menial, I know, but it’s true.

Image via Joselyn Jones

More little perks of being tall:

• I could ride roller coasters when I was 6 because I was tall enough.
• I can eat more… This can be good and bad…
• National Hug a Tall Person Day... I don’t know if this is real but it sounds legit to me!
• In the back of a crowd or concert? No problem!
• I can reach the top shelf at Target 🙂

However, of all the perks, my favorite is by far the one that I found on Twitter that read. “Marry a tall girl so your kids will be D1” – @AugieD5. I never really thought about it, but my future children have a much higher chance of success in sports because I’m tall, and unlike Eniko Parrish, I plan on marrying tall as well. You’re welcome future kids.

All in all, I wouldn’t trade my height for the world and I am so glad that I have learned to love my height and everything that comes along with it. Thank you all for joining me on this blog journey, and I hope that I was able to add a little humor to your day!

Til next time,

Madison

Growing pains. We all get them, and they’re the worst when we grow four inches a year for two consecutive years. I’m sure you can all relate, right? No, I’m probably wrong, because no normal human being grows eight inches in two years. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, girls should grow around 2 inches per year during their middle childhood. Some of my shorter readers may be thinking, “wow, I wish I could grow that much”, but growing quickly isn’t all fun and games.

(Image via TallNCurly)

Biologically, our bodies are not made to sustain rapid growth over a short period of time. This ultimately means that when you grow faster than your joints and muscles can keep up with, you end up in a lot of pain and discomfort; put more simply, growing pains. For years, I couldn’t understand why my knees and feet were always achy and painful during the months of November and December. I ultimately concluded that I was allergic to the holiday season, and went on with my life. This was until I was about 13 and realized that my bodily aches were accompanied by rapid growth, which just happened to always be during the holiday season, and coincidentally, after my birthday.

Me smiling in a picture with my little brother even though my knees were killing me (Image via Stacey Burnard)

What are growing pains like? Imagine waking up one morning and getting out of your bed just to realize that in addition to it being extremely painful to stand and walk, your knees creak with every step. Imagine the bottom of your feet aching as if you jumped up and down continuously for 24 hours. Imagine your thighs being as sore as if you squatted 700 pounds when you haven’t done so much as a bodyweight squat. These are growing pains, and they are not fun.

(Image via HerHaleness)

Many online resources, such as this one, advise parents to take their kids to a pediatrician if growing pains become severe, as they could be evidence of a more chronic issue. Luckily for me, my family saved a trip to the pediatrician’s office because they’ve been expecting it since I was a few months old. At my first doctor’s checkup, they placed me on the growth chart to determine my expected height; well, they tried to. Unsurprisingly, I was off of the charts, even at three months old. I was born 7.4 pounds and 24 inches, which is pretty high above the newborn average. Based off of my position in the 101st percentile (not on the chart), I was estimated to be 6 feet and 4 inches.

To scale picture of me if I was 6’4 (Image via Hareem Baig)

Currently, I stand at 6’1, and I have no desire to grow any taller. So, you could imagine my agony when I began to have the same growing pains in my legs and feet – that I haven’t had in about 3 years – shortly after my 17th birthday a few weeks ago. I WAS DISTRAUGHT. As many of you know, my jeans are just BARELY long enough for me now, so neither my wallet or my body can really handle another growth spurt at this point. As of now, the growing pains have ceased and I was only achy for about a week or two, so I guess we’ll have to wait until next semester to see if I really do hit 6’4.

Thanks for reading!

Madison

(Image via The Daily Gazette)

Most people don’t believe me when I tell them, but my freshman year in high school I played field hockey. Yes, field hockey with the little sticks. I know you’re all wondering, and yes, I was the tallest one on the team, even as a freshman. However, the thing that mostly shocks people is that I chose to play field hockey over volleyball, the typical sport that a 5’9, 12-year-old would play. But why? 

To be honest, looking back, I regret not trying out for volleyball my freshman year, but quite frankly I was too scared to try out for the team. This is because, embarrassingly enough, I was cut from the middle school volleyball team in both 7th AND 8th grade, and I was NOT about to get cut in high school too. So, where did the field hockey idea come from, of all sports?  

During my freshman orientation, there were a variety of sports teams, clubs, and various organizations at tables around the school recruiting freshmen to join or try out for their teams. When I passed the volleyball table, the coaches practically ran after me and begged me to try out, but the PTSD of being cut in middle school had still haunted me and I smiled but told myself that I would never again in my life touch a volleyball. Then suddenly as if angels had parted from the sky, I heard the magic words. “Everyone makes the team!” I nearly broke my neck to turn around and see “Chancellor High School Field Hockey” written on the table that I had just heard the magic words spoken from. I walked over to find out more information and was told that as long as I attended the conditioning Monday-Friday, 7:30am-12pm, the entire summer until tryouts, I was indeed guaranteed a spot on the team. Guess who spent their entire summer conditioning for field hockey? ME.  

However, my first issue arose when I went to Dick’s to buy a field hockey stick. A typical field hockey stick is supposed to go to the top of the players hip bone, but as you all know, my insanely long legs clearly didn’t allow for this. Even the specialty sticks that were available online weren’t long enough, so I was stuck with a stick that was disproportional to my body in comparison to the other girls.

(Image via Best Field Hockey Stick Sizing)                                                                                                                              

My second issue was “getting low”. Not only did my knees not allow for this, but no matter how low I got, it wasn’t low enough, and I still towered over everyone else. To make matters worse, one of the rules of field hockey is that you can’t swing your stick past your hip bone but considering that my hip was practically the height of other girls’ faces, it was pretty much inevitable that I would smash someone in the face. Fortunately, when this happened, I didn’t smash her face but instead pushed her jaw out of place. The worst part? This was still during conditioning and she was a sophomore on the team. Yikes.

(Image via Reddit)

Luckily for me, the week before tryouts I went on vacation to Florida, and while I was on vacation I broke my anterior inferior iliac spine playing limbo, and thus was unable to play for the entire season although I was still on the team (literally only because I went to every day of conditioning so that had to let me on). To say the least, it was quite an interesting experience, but you can bet that I did NOT try out the next year, and instead decided to try out volleyball one last time. It ended up working out, and I have been playing volleyball since then and still do on the Penn State Club Volleyball Team. What did I learn, you’re wondering? Ultimately, I learned that some sports just aren’t meant for tall, clumsy people like myself, and I’m okay with that. 

Thanks for tuning in! 

Madison