Sunday, September 5, 2010

I Am Short. Embrace It!

This is hot off the press. Well, okay, it's a few weeks old but the story was featured in a local magazine last week and caught my eye.

Apparently......backstage at a recent performance, a male teen singing sensation requested another, a female, to take her heels off before they go out to perform a duet so she would not tower over him. She flatly refused to go barefoot and said to him, "You're short. Embrace it!"

I can relate to that feeling of shame as I went through that phase when I was in my teens. Even when I was in school, I never did quite grow into the beanstalk my parents expected me to. Being vertically-challenged has plagued me all my life (pull your hankies out, real heavy insecurities surfacing through here).

I tried jumping high on New Year's Eve as the clock strikes midnight, drank little brown growth pills that tasted like bleeech!, did stretching exercises that would pull me tall.....but still, I remained my tiny form. (Actually, I grew an inch with the exercises, but who's counting? If I continued with it, I would reach 5 feet when I am 55, lol!) I somehow thought that my height (or lack of it) would equate to the life that lay ahead of me. How silly, right?

As years went by, I learnt to accept my limitation. I can even say now that my size gives me more definition as a person. I do not need to be tall to be all that I can be and do all that I can do (Age could also be a factor here, but that's for another blog).

This post is not to detract anything from anybody who is taller than 5 feet. I am petite after all, why would I wanna pick a fight? :-)

I am just saying.....I am short. And I embrace it! Have you?

P.S. Just to show how proud I am of being short, here's a sample of one moment of shortness:


I am pictured here with Terence and his wife
while doing a charity drive last year.

Okay, you can stop staring now. I know I'm a whole lotta short. I can feel the pangs of real heavy insecurities coming through again. LOL. Peace out!

2 comments:

kim said...

Being short WAS a big deal to me during my teens, particularly high school days. But when I went to college, I was RARELY called short, I was called CUTE. NO! Not because of the face, I am not pretty, but I think it has something to do with POSITIVE DISPOSITION. I may not be as tall as other people (girs in particular) but I there is something I HAVE that they don't, and whatever it is.. it is for them to FIND OUT, lol! Simply put.. be proud of what you are! go girl!

MJ Rodriguez said...

thanks, kim! almost sound like we are starting a "short" sisterhood revolution! LOL.