Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Making peace with a perceived problem
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Graven Image
Shipmate
# 8755
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Posted
Have any on the ship learned to let go and just live with something they once perceived as a problem? I have learned to not only live with my naturally curly hair, but now I enjoy the ease of caring for it, and even the way it looks. As a young child I was taught that I must, "Control" my hair, and for some reason I kept it up through adulthood. After years and years of jells, creams, special shampoos, heating irons and such one day I just gave up and let it curl. It is such a relief to just wash my hair and go after all those years of struggle I sure wish I had done it earlier in life.
Posts: 2641 | From: Third planet from the sun. USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
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Posted
Sometimes it's other people who define it as a problem. Hair is funny because I've heard people with straight hair complain about not having curly hair and people with curly hair bemoan not having straight hair. I have curly hair, and the concern these daysis more about having enough left.
The biggest problem that turned out not to be a problem was going from being a homosexual to being an out gay.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Lack of height in a family of tall people.
Seriously - A great-grandmother of 6' 3", average height of my mother and her sisters 5' 11", average height on father's side 6' plus.
Over both sides of the family my cousins range from 5' 9" (female) to 6' 10". As for me, I'm only 5' 6".
I still grit my teeth when siblings and cousins refer to me as 'the changeling'.
-------------------- Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
So you're the only average-sized person in a family of giants, then?
My problem when I was a teenager was that I didn't like the colour of my hair. I wanted to be red-haired, or blonde, or black-haired - anything but brown!
Eventually I got used to having brown hair. I was telling a friend about this sometime after I became reconciled to my hair colour, and his reaction was 'why didn't you dye it?'
Not the point. Underneath, it would still have been brown.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710
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Posted
I never enjoyed being underweight. Time took care of that problem.
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
I was raised to have a sense of shame at not being able to write cursively. I once told a remedial-writing teacher that I never did, and she recated with muted outrage. "A student your age? That is INSANE."
Eventually, I had a conversation witn an uncle who didn't write cursively either, and he seemed like a successful enough guy, so I figured it was something you could live without. Years later, I asked someone why it was considered important to write cursively, and they said, quite non-chalantly, "Well, it's just quicker." (Whereas my teachers made it sound as if writing cursively were the equivalent of observing the incest taboo or something.)
Not to be unheavenly, but I have long had the impression that much of what school teachers hold near and dear is based on flavour-of-the-month faddism. I suspect that my remdial teacher had once heard some pedagogical theorist deliver a lecture about how "If a student is going to survive and thrive in a modern democratic society, it is of the utmost importance that he learn the skill of joined lettering. Our schools have for too long neglected this crucial acquisition."
-------------------- I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
My lack of spirituality.
I am not a traditionally spiritual and meditative person. I hate silent retreats. My spirituality is different - often "urban".
I used to think that it was a problem that I had not developed to the level of finding quiet meditation inspiring. These days, I have come to accept that I am who I am, and my spirituality is a reflection of who and where I am.
In the end, I will learn from others where I can, but I won't necessarily emulate them. I will find God where I find him.
-------------------- Blog Music for your enjoyment Lord may all my hard times be healing times take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat: My lack of spirituality.
I am not a traditionally spiritual and meditative person. I hate silent retreats. My spirituality is different - often "urban".
I used to think that it was a problem that I had not developed to the level of finding quiet meditation inspiring. These days, I have come to accept that I am who I am, and my spirituality is a reflection of who and where I am.
In the end, I will learn from others where I can, but I won't necessarily emulate them. I will find God where I find him.
I feel like I could have written the above.
No joking, but these days I find that I come closer to encountering God on the Ship than anywhere else in my life(*). And of course, this is hardly a quiet and meditative place.
(*) Granted, this probably says as much about me as about the Ship, but still... [ 25. September 2014, 17:49: Message edited by: Stetson ]
-------------------- I have the power...Lucifer is lord!
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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doubtingthomas
Shipmate
# 14498
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Graven Image: I have learned to not only live with my naturally curly hair ... As a young child I was taught that I must, "Control" my hair...
You are clearly a different age from me I was a teenager in the eighties, and everyone loved my untamable curls - except me...(after all, I was the one who got hurt by the brush every day!)
Fortunately that has sorted itself with age - it has gone down to pleasantly wavy all by itself.
-------------------- 'We are star-stuff. We are the Universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out' Delenn (Babylon 5)
Posts: 266 | From: A Small Island | Registered: Jan 2009
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nickel
Shipmate
# 8363
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Posted
I'm trying, right now. Problem: someone (not me, and the only other inhabitant is dear husband so it must be HIM!) never leaves the hand-towel by the sink. It always ends up elsewhere. So a few weeks ago I gave up: after drying my hands, I put the towel on the far counter. If you can't lick'em, join'em! Recently dear husband has remarked that the hand towel is never where it's supposed to be. Ha! however, it is small stuff and I no longer sweat it, at least not very much. (Besides which, within a year we'll be downsizing to a home with a much smaller kitchen so no matter where the hand towel ends up then, it'll be much closer!)
Posts: 547 | From: Virginia USA | Registered: Aug 2004
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Schroedinger's cat: I hate silent retreats.
That's an agreement here. I pray better with an axe in hand chopping wood. Or just about anything not involving just sitting and trying to be deep or otherwise spiritual.
-------------------- Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. \_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688
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Posted
Being crap at competitive team sports.
I have exactly no hand-eye coordination. My brain sees a missile approaching and has absolutely no idea where it is headed. School PE was misery. *Everything* we played (tennis, netball, rounders…) involved missiles.
As an adult, I have discovered that (a) I’m actually ok at running (no flying projectiles involved) and (b) the ability to throw and catch is highly overrated and much less important to daily life than my PE teacher tried to make me believe.
-------------------- Rent my holiday home in the South of France
Posts: 3696 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by la vie en rouge: Being crap at competitive team sports.
I have exactly no hand-eye coordination. My brain sees a missile approaching and has absolutely no idea where it is headed. School PE was misery. *Everything* we played (tennis, netball, rounders…) involved missiles.
As an adult, I have discovered that (a) I’m actually ok at running (no flying projectiles involved) and (b) the ability to throw and catch is highly overrated and much less important to daily life than my PE teacher tried to make me believe.
Tell me about it. Tennis teachers go on about where to place the ball in the opponent's court; it's as much as I can do to get it "in" at all when serving, and when not serving making contact with the ball at all is a major challenge, never mind actually returning it. As for returning it to a particular part of the court, you might as well ask me to fly to the moon.
-------------------- Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
Ah, lots of things - one might as well make peace with them, after all, if they are there to stay.
Big knobbly knees, inability to recognise faces, being socially awkward, not being able to drive. And having a preference for silence and solitude (perhaps the opposite of SC's perceived problem - people have tended to see me as unsociable and hermit-like. But it's who I am and so there's no point pretending to be otherwise.).
Posts: 2375 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2006
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
Also - exactly what le vie en rouge said, except I don't run. I swim, and love it. No flying projectiles, no competition - just swimming up and down the pool by myself.
Posts: 2375 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2006
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The Phantom Flan Flinger
Shipmate
# 8891
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by L'organist: Lack of height in a family of tall people.
As for me, I'm only 5' 6".
I still grit my teeth when siblings and cousins refer to me as 'the changeling'.
Remember - the best things come in small packages.
-------------------- http://www.faith-hope-and-confusion.com/
Posts: 1020 | From: Leicester, England | Registered: Dec 2004
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
Arthritis.
My joints hurt, often, but I can live with it and ignore it - no problem.
-------------------- Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Boogie: Arthritis.
My joints hurt, often, but I can live with it and ignore it - no problem.
Yup.
I discovered when I got my oral surgery last year that I an pretty tolerant to pain. I was prescribed painkillers and would forget to take them until I was cranky and fatigued-- then I would have to stop and ask myself if I was in pain. I am so used to being kinda achy that I didn't realize pain was making me act funny. [ 26. September 2014, 19:04: Message edited by: Kelly Alves ]
-------------------- I cannot expect people to believe “ Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.” Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
But, Lord Crist! whan that it remembreth me Upon my yowthe and on my jolitee, It tikleth me aboute myn herte roote. Unto this day it dooth myn herte boote That I have had my world, as in my tyme. But age, allas, that al wole envenyme, Hath me biraft my beautee and my pith! Lat go, farewel, the devel go therwith! The flour is goon, ther is namoore to telle, The bren as I best kan, now moste I selle;
Yup.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Pomona
Shipmate
# 17175
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by L'organist: Lack of height in a family of tall people.
Seriously - A great-grandmother of 6' 3", average height of my mother and her sisters 5' 11", average height on father's side 6' plus.
Over both sides of the family my cousins range from 5' 9" (female) to 6' 10". As for me, I'm only 5' 6".
I still grit my teeth when siblings and cousins refer to me as 'the changeling'.
Average height for women in the UK is 5'4-5'6 so you're definitely the taller side of average. I'm 5'1, mum is 5 foot nothing (though I wouldn't be surprised if she was 4'11), sister is 5'2 or thereabouts so we're all needing stools to reach top cupboards in our house, except for my dad
-------------------- Consider the work of God: Who is able to straighten what he has bent? [Ecclesiastes 7:13]
Posts: 5319 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2012
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Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
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Posted
Posting to add my name to the list along with Schroedinger's Cat, Stetson and no prophet.
3 out 4 are Canadian. Is this something to do with "too much geography"? The wide open spaces of the Prairies or the endless waves of spruce across the rest of the landscape tending to make church ritual rather blah?
-------------------- It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger: quote: Originally posted by L'organist: Lack of height in a family of tall people.
As for me, I'm only 5' 6".
I still grit my teeth when siblings and cousins refer to me as 'the changeling'.
Remember - the best things come in small packages.
Yup. One of my friends calls me "fun size".
-------------------- Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
Hee!
Oh, I have no depth perception. I have adapted to it so completely that I often forget that I have no depth perception-- so I will giddily climb up a step ladder with no fear of heights, then have to feel my way back down step by step.
I was watching a street cleaner go by the other day, and I realized I could never do that job as I would not be able to sense where the cars were, and would probably be scratching them up left and right. Or I would be overanxious about hitting one and leave big patches of waste along the gutters.
-------------------- I cannot expect people to believe “ Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.” Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Patdys
Iron Wannabe RooK-Annoyer
# 9397
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Posted
Bunny with a crocheted axe.
For me I had to let go of career aspirations when I elected to work in a 'holding pattern' job, do some study for fun and watch my kids grow up a bit. The funny thing was is that having let it go, was about the time things started to escalate work wise. And the study for fun is key to underpinning my current work.
All of this whilst on board here BTW.
-------------------- Marathon run. Next Dream. Australian this time.
Posts: 3511 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
I am 4 foot 11 and whilst I may not be able to reach the top shelf at the supermarket it does mean I have lovely upright posture
(I have a library kick stool (bright red) in the kitchen and it is one of my favourite things).
-------------------- 'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams Dog Activity Monitor My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
A long time ago, I realised that, despite my fantasies, I would never be a fireman or a star at anything I wanted to be. I decided that I would have to find something I could do fairly well and do my best at it. Have I ever failed? Yes, and quite spectacularly. As will be evident to anyone who has read my posts here. In real life, I maintain a front. Even my successes have me quaking inside, waiting for exposure as a fraud.
It almost never happens, of course. So I keep striving to do my best, to be the best me I can be.
-------------------- Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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cattyish
Wuss in Boots
# 7829
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Posted
Before I got married I was convinced that my life would be incomplete unless I had children. We had some serious discussions about it and agreed that we would start a family once I'd finished my professional training. It hasn't worked out that way. I'm 39 today and I'm perfectly happy to borrow other people's children. I am auntie and godmother to a collection of lovely children and young people, and I get the chance to talk to young people at church and as a member of a school chaplaincy team. I can see now that if I had children of my own I'd have less time to give my godchildren.
Cattyish, enjoying a day off.
-------------------- ...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posts: 1794 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2004
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Kelly Alves: Oh, I have no depth perception. I have adapted to it so completely that I often forget that I have no depth perception-- so I will giddily climb up a step ladder with no fear of heights, then have to feel my way back down step by step.
Same here, which is one reason I don't drive. Although I was never even aware I had no depth perception until I was tested for Irlen lenses, so I guess it was never a perceived problem for me. I always feel my way on ladders and stairs, so I can't imagine a different way of doing it.
Posts: 2375 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2006
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
Also, happy birthday, Cattyish.
Posts: 2375 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2006
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cattyish
Wuss in Boots
# 7829
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Posted
Thank you Fineline It is a good day of sunshine, gardening, chocolate, tea and church drama practice.
Cattyish, about to put her Interflora delivery in a vase.
-------------------- ...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posts: 1794 | From: Scotland | Registered: Jul 2004
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
Sounds lovely, cattyish - chocolate and tea are always a good combination.
Posts: 2375 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2006
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Sarasa
Shipmate
# 12271
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Posted
I'm hard of hearing , something that doesn't bother me at all, I like being able to turn off my hearing aids in noisy places and ignore the world. It's been known to bother other people though....
-------------------- 'I guess things didn't go so well tonight, but I'm trying. Lord, I'm trying.' Charlie (Harvey Keitel) in Mean Streets.
Posts: 2035 | From: London | Registered: Jan 2007
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Kitten
Shipmate
# 1179
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by The Phantom Flan Flinger: quote: Originally posted by L'organist: Lack of height in a family of tall people.
As for me, I'm only 5' 6".
I still grit my teeth when siblings and cousins refer to me as 'the changeling'.
Remember - the best things come in small packages.
I'm tall, and have come to loathe that expression over the years
-------------------- Maius intra qua extra
Never accept a ride from a stranger, unless they are in a big blue box
Posts: 2330 | From: Carmarthenshire | Registered: Aug 2001
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by L'organist: ... I'm only 5' 6" ...
In the most literal sense, I look up to you - I'm only 5'2".
-------------------- I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander. alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
Sorry about the 'giants' quip, Kitten.
I am 5'6" myself (same height as L'organist, on the taller side of average) but have always thought of myself as tall because I spent most of my time in primary school being the tallest in the class. I stopped growing when I was about 12, but I've gone on thinking of myself as tall. It was quite a shock, in my late teens, when I noticed that most of the boys and a few of the girls in my year were taller than me. I still have to keep reminding myself that I'm not (that) tall.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
Height and hair.
Mind of its own, my hair. Sorted it right out with clipper set to low. Only downside is mum. "You have such lovely hair when you let it grow" As for the height, not sure when it stopped bothering me. I would say it simply became unimportant. My friends would say where my height stops, my attitude begins.
-------------------- I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
My grammar school kids think I'm tall, but 5'10" is the average height for a man my age. They must be comparing me to female classroom teachers...
-------------------- If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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