Shortness is something that I don’t experience in most things except being short of funds and short of time. I am hardly ever short of thoughts, ideas and things to say.
I can’t quite recollect when I became physically conscious as a child that I’m not short. At 5 ft 11 inches tall, I remember my growing up years of gangly arms and long legs and standing a head above my peers.
The height invited teasing and taunting from male peers who for some shortness of genes didn’t get to grow tall fast enough. For a while, I recall praying not to grow too tall and hunching to appear shorter to blend in with others and not get teased as such. My mother and grandma used to straighten out my shoulders and reminded me often to stand tall and look the person in the eye.
Eventually, I grew into the arms and legs and became comfortable with my height especially when I got invitations to model clothes and calendar pages.
Fast forward to my present day, the roundness of motherhood and age has made me shorter especially in the presence of my young 14-year-old son who’s 6 ft 4 inches and growing and his siblings who are fast catching up.
I am no longer bothered about my height since that was long settled, I am more concerned with the plumper parts that jiggle and wobble these days.
I am fighting the gravitational force of nature to keep the jiggle-wobble on a short leash. I guess nature will take its course eventually though we must do our best in a healthy manner to help it along and prolong the shortness of things. I guess I’ve got that figured out if only I can get a handle on my shortage of funds and time.
P.S. I couldn’t resist adding this throwback photo of mine that my husband dug up from God knows where.
Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Jackie,
You are beautiful. I never knew that you were a model and no surprise with such beauty. Can you try modeling now too- living in the Middle East ? Have you searched for such avenues ?
I am tall too, though I didn’t quite get to 5.11. My problem was getting clothes my size and in a family of not too tall people, I always stood out. I was an aberration. Like you, my mother told me to always stand straight but my one worry growing up was that I was never given heels to wear. Now that I can do it on my own, I indulge to my heart’s content. In a country where many women are tall, I don’t stand out at all. And being tall gives you an edge over others, I feel.
Susie
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Your compliment makes me smile 🙂 I’ve only been able to get one modelling gig since we moved here because they tend to prefer the Arab/Asian looks in this part and blacks are far and few between. Secondly, I don’t have money to pay some agencies that want money from interested parties before they can scout for any jobs. I just do it for fun and part time when anything comes up. Growing up tall was quite a challenge with trying to find the right clothes especially when we didn’t have so many choices back then. Now, it does have it’s advantages – the edge thing and I am happy with it 😉
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Jackie,
Thanks for sharing my bio- interview.Needless to say, I have a lot more of “follow”ers now.
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Growing pains! Love the post and the photo, no wonder you were a model. 🤗💜
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It’s amazing how we all have these growing pains and now as an adult I wonder what the fuss was all about. Thank you Willow 🙂
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Me too 💗💜
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Beautiful words and beautiful young you , and beautiful you today. I love how you say you grew into your legs etc… that is such a great expression. We do grow into ourselves physicall and emotionally – does that make sense? Nice piece. Love bella
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It makes a whole lot of sense Bella. We grow into ourselves, physically, spiritually,emotionally and all other ramifications. Thank you for your lovely comments 🙂
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Gorgeous your BLOG !!! Follow mine too !!! Kisses !!!
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Thank you, Nilda.
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Those legs, though!
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Thank you Daria. Then I thought they were too long, but I don’t think so now 🙂
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You are still very beautiful, Jacqui 🙂
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Thank you my dear friend 🙂
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Jacqueline this is ‘Tall and Tall of Things’.
And
It is always ” Short and Short of Things” the money and time.
I never thought you to be of such height as walking on this earth. But your stature is much heighter.
Shiva
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Your comment just made me laugh out loud 🙂
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So Loud Jacqueline that I could hear.
So once again laugh and I shall hear.
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The jiggle and the wobble – lol !!!! Wear that with pride too 🙂
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I am trying ‘cos I don’t have much choice 😉
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Know what you mean 🙂
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I was usually the tallest person in my class for many years, until the boys started to catch up. I love that smile! You are beautiful inside and out.
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Aww! Thank you JoAnna for the beautiful comment 🙂
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This quickly brought me back to my childhood. When you talked of hunching over to fit in. I wasn’t overly tall, but can remember trying to look different than I did in order to blend in. I think most of us did…whether it was our hair, our weight, our breasts, our makeup, our clothing…so much pressure during what should be our carefree years!
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Honestly! The peer pressure to fit in is immense at this young age and it’s taken my adult eye to see it.
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J you are such a beauty!!! 🙂
I am one of the shorter people at 5ft 5 inches and I was uncomfortable with my height too for a while. But eventually I found confidence in my thoughts and knowledge 🙂
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You are such a sweetie Aishwarya. Thank you my dear friend, for your kind words. It’s amazing how we present ourselves with reasons to feel dissatisfied with who we are and how we look like especially when we are young. I am glad that maturity helps us outgrow such nonsense and to find confidence in ourselves 🙂
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I can relate with the first lines of this post😂. You just know how to keep a reader interested dear. I’m glad you accepted who you are as time went on. That’s boldness. Thank you for sharing this, I did learn one thing
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Your comment makes me smile. That shortness of funds and time, I would gladly change but I’m working hard at it 🙂
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You’re so beautiful!!!!! ❤ !!!!!!
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Aww! Thank you for your lovely compliments 🙂
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