There was always that one girl who towered over everyone (including the boys) in elementary school and I was that girl.

I came by it naturally. My entire family was tall. I guess with our dad being 6’6” and our mom being 5’9,” we didn’t have much of a chance! In elementary school I was the tall scrawny girl that had grown a little bit too fast. We moved to Pahoa, Hawaii when I was nine and I noticed right away that we stuck out. Not only were we white, but we were also about a foot taller than every one else. As a kid who was just beginning to deal with the struggle of trying to fit in, this definitely didn’t help. As I made friends, the thought that I was much taller than all of them was always in the back of my mind. For a long time, I felt awkward and uncomfortable with this small and seemingly unimportant physical aspect of myself.

I stopped wearing heels to church because I was annoyed by the comments people made on my height. All throughout middle school I had horrible posture because I was used to slouching to try and appear shorter. As an introvert trying her best to blend in, it was almost impossible to do so since I physically stuck out no matter what I did!

When I got to high school, it became immediately apparent that my height of 5’11” was going to help me in one aspect that would become a major part of my life for the next four years – sports. Having never played volleyball in my life, the coach was willing to take me under her wing and train me because I was tall, and you “couldn’t train someone to have height.” There are countless other examples I can think of where my height helped me to excel in the sport I was in at the moment, and I am extremely grateful for that.

Though I can’t pinpoint the exact moment it happened, at some point I decided that it was okay to stick out. Why was I spending countless hours feeling uncomfortable with something I couldn’t change? Being tall was a part of me and it was no reason to feel awkward. I started to own my height. I learned to hold my head high and walk with confidence. I liked being tall. It tied me to my family and it gave people something to remember me by. Being tall has ultimately taught me to be confident in my own skin and to own who I am.