The Society of The Short

Always disappearing into a crowd, and finding everything literally just out of reach? If you answered yes, you probably belong to the society of the short. It's not an organization where members of the society meet regularly and discuss an agenda to benefit a cause or to participate in a project, or even an event, but it is very real, and there are members all over the globe.

To qualify as short, or to be politically correct vertically impaired, a person just has to be slightly below the average height of people for their age group, gender and race. I qualify even though I am only two inches below the average height for my age group gender, and race, which happens to be 5 ft 4 in, making me 5 ft 2 in. It's an almost minimal difference, but in the grand scheme of things it makes a huge difference in defining a person.

If you are vertically impaired, then you understand the ever present struggle of short people in society. The endless string of short jokes, and the knowledge that you will most likely never make it big playing basketball for the NBA or any other professional basketball organization. In some cases shelves and cupboards are too high to reach just standing, so the vertically impaired individual needs to stand on a chair in order to reach the shelf.

Not everything is terrible in the lives of the vertically impaired, for instance tree branches aren't ever a concern. Some of the taller people in the world have to worry about low hanging branches, and as a short person the concern in minimal because short people can typically walk right under them with ease. Crowds are also easier to weave through, because short people can fit into tighter spaces, and move around taller people without running into them. That's one of my favorite parts, because after an event where a large crowd of people is trying to exit all at once, I can usually weave through the crowd and get out pretty fast.

It's all based on perspective. You can look at all of the negative aspects of being short, or you can try and find a way to make the best out of the situation, and find the sliver lining in being short. There's no way to change it, so you might as well just accept it and be okay with it. As my bowling teacher Bob Trythall said time and time again (I paraphrase a little because he frequently changed it depending on the situation , "You can be short and be all upset about it, or you can be short and happy about it. Either way you are short, so you might as well be happy about it." I agree with that, because life is what you make of it, and being short doesn't change that fact in the slightest, it just takes a different strategy.
<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/12989827/?claim=qc3yvs2tvxv">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
#ShortStories