Chapter 19: Standing Out- Literally

     Woah- Friday the 13th crazzy stuff is happening... someone flipped all the signs in our hallway upside-down. Regardless, I went to a concert last night. It was amazing, Mike Posner and I'm now obsessed, anyway I had a great fantastic time. The best part was that I could actually see him! HAHA! We didn't get there until later and so we had to stand near the back but because I'm tall I could see the stage still.
     This has happened before obviously and I'm used to this advantage and normally get annoyed because I am completely standing out and it used to freak me out because I thought everybody was always staring at me and I'd get all self-conscious, now however, I see the liberating aspect of it. It was also crazy because I looked over to my right and saw some other extremely tall girls just hanging out above everyone else- I soon realized that they were UNL volleyball players and we were on the same level.... haha pun~
     But it was nice to know that I'm not totally alone out there with my height (even though these girls were recruited from other states) Toward the end of the concert we were able to push our way up closer to the stage and my height was no longer an advantage because there were girls up on shoulders and other taller people, but that was also fun because I no longer stood out and I believe that's ok sometimes. You don't always have to stand out and do something amazing, it's ok to go with the flow once in a while just live life and see where that takes you. Although that should not be your whole life, because then you are no longer you and have just completely conformed so it's a fine balance and good luck figuring it out! Old people are still working on this I believe so no worries!

Chapter 18: Throwback #2

      I was super cute when I was little- uugggly baby, cute little toddler, then things got pretty bad in 3rd grade- horrible in middle school until it finally leveled out in high school- so I won't show any pictures from the disaster years, but this one really emphasizes my cuteness.

     As you can observe from this picture I started to pick up on my modeling skill at a young age :) even though I am rocking the bowl cut (you'll have to blame my parents for that). I think this was a first day of pre-school picture and I was sooo excited.

     I was about this age when I tried to make a swimming pool in our living room. I've always had a love of swimming and I was soon out of my floaty wings and swimming around like a mermaid (or so I thought) in the pool. But we didn't have a really big pool at our house and I really wanted to go swimming and I remember being inspired by watching an episode of Arthur (the cartoon show on PBS) one day when Arthur goes to the pool. I thought, "Hey wouldn't be great to make a pool inside?!" 

     So I planned it all out- I knew my mom would probably not approve so I would wait until I got the chance and the living room was empty. One summer afternoon my mom put me in my room to take a "nap" but if you read my last post you know I hated to actually sleep during nap times- so this is when I would carry out my carefully crafted plots. My mom left the house after she thought I was asleep and went outside to work in the garden. PERFECT!! 

     I had the house all to myself now and I set in motion my indoor-swimming pool plan! I got my sippy cup from the bathroom, pushed the step stool up to the counter so I could reach the bathroom sink (I know I was crazy short) and carefully filled my cup up and slowly walked to the living room- making sure not to spill because I would definitely get in trouble and of course I wasn't trying to make a pool in the bathroom! So I go to the middle of the floor in the living room and dump out my cup right into the brown carpet just getting it wet and turning it a darker shade of brown. Wasn't quite enough water in my cup for a pool so I had to go back and get more...

    Eventually my mom did come in and catch me dumping water onto the floor, she didn't seem to understand the it was OK, and she could use the pool too! Sooo I got in lots of trouble, and Mom had to set to work getting all that water out of the carpet. I believe she told me that she had vacuumed up about two and a half gallons out of the carpet- do you know how many sippy cups that is?? 

     So I guess the moral of the story is that you can't make a swimming pool inside and expect to get away with it, and that I had to use a stool to reach the bathroom sink at one time ;)

Chapter 17: Throwback

     Believe it or not I was short once although as I explained in my first chapter I was never under two feet really. But when I was younger I was littler and I have some interesting memories from when I was just a normal little kid growing up on the farm :) As you can see from the picture below (which I inserted as evidence of my shortness) I was shorter than my sister at one time- I'm the little girl in the pink looking really happy. 

    So me growing up - I was pretty neat and had a lot of fun mostly by myself or my sister. Since I lived in the country I couldn't run over to my neighbor's house and go play with all the other kids, I had to get a little more creative. Of course when I was super young, I couldn't leave the house with out supervision so I had to live it up inside driving my parents a little crazy. 

     I think I scared my mom the most one of the times when I broke out of my crib. I had this huge (at the time it was huge to me) teddy bear thing I called Teddy. Well I found out at the age of 2 1/2ish that if I put Teddy in the corner of my crib I could stand on him which would give me enough of a step up so I could pull myself out of the crib and onto the top of my dresser. I was then able to jump down from and there play with all my toys while I was suppose to be taking a nap.  I could then open the bottom drawer of my dresser, use that as a step, climb back to the top of the dresser, and then go back in my crib when I thought my nap time was about over and my mom would come get me. Unfortunately my mom caught me doing this once and she about freaked out because here was her almost 3 year old standing on top of a dresser :) little did she know I was a ninja in training and had everything under complete control.

     That was the first time I think I used my height to my advantage being awesome and breaking out of my crib so I could play with my toys. I don't know why I hated naps so much back then- but if I was told I was going to have to take a nap I would NEVER go to sleep I would lay awake in bed and pretend to sleep if the parentals came to check on me. I would definitely go back now and take advantage of those naps...

     (To be continued)

Chapter 16: High Heel Stepping

    If you know me than you've probably seen me in heels at least once, maybe. Honestly this is one of my favorite past times besides my love of knitting or climbing trees and let me explain why. When normal girls wear high heels everyone thinks, "Wow ok, well guess they are dressing up tonight- cool" or "Hey!" (not even noticing the heels at all). When a 6' 2" girl walks in with 4" pumps on people are prone to have these responses, "What are you doing?? Aren't you tall enough?" "Yikes! You're going to break your ankles! Be careful!!" or just simply "Woah..."
     To these I normally smile and say hello and keep walking :) For me getting to wear heels is a right you get to have because you're a girl (or a guy who just really wants the experience- I don't judge) and so I shouldn't be denied my right just because it will make other people feel uncomfortable. Sorry about it.
     I walk into a room and everybody turns to look, at least at first- gives me a little taste of what super pretty girls get to feel like all the time - because people do notice you at least. I'm normally towering over everybody else at an altitude of about 6' 6" just hanging out. I never used to wear heels a lot because I felt it would make me too tall, but I've gotten over that because I've realized there's always someone taller, smarter, funnier, prettier or better than me in everything so I've just got to relax and do me whatever it amounts to. So since I no longer care, I'm wearing my heels and working on my run-way strut!
     Now, because of my job I get to dress up for work and I have grown accustomed to wearing heels everyday and so it no longer phases me and I don't think other people should mind it either. When you judge someone else all it does is make you judge yourself even more, so let it go and strap on your heels too then we can all be taller together! :)

Chapter 15: No I really didn't grow

     So I'm home for the holidays. That joyful time of year when people spend way too much money on other people who will just resent your gifts later. You gain unsightly amounts of weight by eating all the cookies your mother labored over. Pretending to be happy when you really don't care that another rerun of the claymation Rudolph movie is on.  I really think I'm just bitter about Christmas this year because we don't have our usual amount of snow and the weather's not being conducive to snuggling in blankets and drinking hot chocolate, really its been almost pleasant, which makes me even more perturbed. But regardless I'm home no longer living in my 12' x 12' cubicle they call a dorm room- I really didn't mind it but everyone else seems to hate it so I'll just pretend I don't like it either.
     By being home I get to see a lot of people I haven't since I went away in August as I've returned sparingly when necessary, otherwise I've enjoyed freedom. The thing that has been surprising me the most is right after the joyful shouts of "Oh yay Cicely!" -when I see friends from high school (which I ful-heartedly expected... :)  most people seem to continue with "Did you grow? Oh my gosh your so tall!" Basically equating our previous relationship back to square one and it's like I'm meeting somebody for the first time- with regards to that statement, refer to my previous post- I have a hard time convincing people the no, I haven't grown (I promise, because I re-measured myself after the first person accused me, as I was helplessly paralyzed with fear that I HAD grown!) and I really have been really tall for a really long time.
     The only explanation I came come up with for this is that people seem to genuinely forget how tall I really am and in their minds remember me as being shorter. I still haven't figured out if this is a good thing, maybe seeming shorter in their memory makes me appear "closer to them" relationship-wise or they just have a sucky memory and should try harder to remember me in the future~ Either way I find it extremely interesting because this is the longest I've been away from a group of people that know me and so maybe I'll find this a common recurrence in the future.
     And if they are correct in any way and the impossible has happened, that I have indeed grown another inch, I really don't think it would matter much anyway because I'm still home, seeing old friends, reading lots of books and just hanging out wearing sweatpants I have to stretch to make long enough for my gangly extremities! So make sure you remember how tall people really are so you won't be confused the next time you see them~ Merry Christmas!