I am six feet and two inches tall and proud of it. For a lot of my life, and even now on some bad days, I dwell on how much my height has hindered my life experiences rather than improved them. So, today, in an effort to emphasize the many advantages of being a woman with her head in the clouds (literally), I've compiled a list of nine things that are pretty great about being tall.
1. Reaching the top shelf
In my household, I am always the annual nominee to take down the fancy plates and silverware from the top kitchen cabinets to use during holidays. There is no top shelf that I can’t reach unless the shelf was built to not be reached. The grocery store is no problem. I can get you that last box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch all the way at the back of the top shelf. I’ve grown familiar with the cries of my friends’ parents calling me into the kitchen to retrieve out-of-reach pots and pans for them. On top of the refrigerator is no longer a viable hiding spot for birthday gifts and stocking-stuffers. No top shelves are safe.
2. Being intimidating
Sometimes, I like to pretend that the reason why I’m single is because I’m just so tall that I scare all of the men away. It’s true that being tall is sort of an insulation for being bullied. I haven’t experienced much face-to-face combat in my life about really anything. I’m just going to keep perpetuating the assumption that tallness is equivalent to toughness because I don’t think that I’ve quite perfected my confrontation skills. One thing that I hope is that, when I move to New York City, I won't be an obvious target if I decide to take a stroll at 2:00 a.m. However, I might need to take some self-defense classes to be sure of that, should this advantage turn out to be false.
3. What crowd?
It’s unusual and even a bit discomforting for me to be in a crowd and not be able to see the tops of everyone’s heads. I remember the swarms of students in the high school hallways all vying for a way to reach their next class, unable to see around one another. If I’m in a situation where a walkway is swamped, I can still see a path and I take it. Often, companions around me grabbed my backpack and we formed a sort of train through the crowd of people. Naturally, people break out of the way for the gargantuan human who is moving through with no pity for those who stagnantly dwell by the staircase. Tall women are a sort of Moses, I guess. I always joked in high school that making my way through a crowded hallway was like parting the Red Sea.
4. Never in need of a ladder
There are very few ceilings in my dorm that I can’t reach. Do you need a light bulb changed? That's no problem. Just make sure not to have your ceiling fans on full blast because I might feel like ducking the entire time when I’m in the room. The holiday season is always the most fun as a tall person. Mundane tasks like hanging lights and wreaths and putting the star on top the Christmas tree, projects that would typically require at least a step-stool, are a breeze. Once again, my dad and I always receive the very fortunate honor of being the house elves and making sure that every nook or cranny is accounted for.
5. Bonding with strangers
There is nothing more quintessential about being tall than being asked if you play sports. For instance, while standing in line at the grocery store and watching a decrepit grocer scan my Gala apples, I am asked if I play basketball. (Which, due to my rather plump state, it really should have been obvious that I didn’t do much moving around at all, let alone play sports.) Nothing brings tall girls together like relating tales of absolute strangers inquiring about our heights and how that tallness is put to use, as though being a woman over six feet tall is automatically a draft into the NBA.
6. You get to wear men’s shoes
This could be a separate story entirely.
Dear Every Retail Store Ever,
Why do your shoe sizes only go up to size 10? Some of us have size 12 feet and we want a bigger selection of shoes! Where can I find a decent pair of flip flops on this planet? Do you even make knee-length boots that are both tall and the right size?
Sincerely,
Tall Girls
As a horse rider, I always struggled to find boots in my size. Eventually, when we realized how tricky it would be to find women’s boots past size 11 (when I was needing a 12 or even 13), we figured out that the men’s section was as good as it was going to get. Ever since I nabbed that pair of men’s pink western boots (I swear that they were made for me), I haven’t revisited the women’s section in Justin Boots Outlet.
7. Faster travel
There is no taking a friendly stroll across campus without my companion exclaiming, “Slow down!” The burden of long legs is one that I often forget. Longer legs and longer strides equal faster walking. This definitely comes in handy for those mornings when I wake up at 8:57 a.m. for my 9:00 a.m. class, but it can be especially grating when I’m caught behind a line of people who are walking negative three point five miles an hour. I am reminded of the rotation of Earth and how gravity works. God himself even comes down from the heavens to remind me of what life must be like when living with normal-sized legs.
8. Capris are always in!
Every pair of jeans that I own weren’t labeled as capris on the tags, but, inevitably, that’s how I must wear them. I've got to say, for someone who so often bares her ankles to the world just because of the sheer fact that I can't bother spending $75 on a pair of jeans that were made for tall women, my ankles look pretty fabulous and capris match almost any outfit.
9. When I Google image searched “being tall advantages,” a picture of Big Bird came up.
Which reminds me of an oddly relatable book that I once found in my old doctor’s office and it is a great ending thought for this article, despite all of the lovely things that I've said.
