By Amanda Stickels, staff writer
Being short is just downright dangerous. When Sophia Tirado tried to grab a bowl that was on the top shelf in her kitchen, she realized that she couldn’t even remotely reach it. Because she was 4’11”, she was used to not being tall enough to reach things.
She then tried many methods to get the bowl. At first, Tirado stacked a bunch of pillows on top of each other and stood on them. But this only ended up with Tirado on the ground and pillows scattered around the kitchen.
After that, Tirado grabbed a plastic box and tried to stand on it. As soon as she stepped on to the little box, her leg went through it leaving her with a nasty cut.
See the danger? Okay, maybe it’s not that bad, but being 4’10” myself, I can wholeheartedly say that being “vertically challenged” makes life ten inches more difficult than it should be.
Tirado said that one of the biggest problems she has faced is just walking down the hallways in school. Often, she gets run into or even trampled over.
I’m sure everyone knows the phrase “being a little fish in a big pond.” Well, this is an example of being a small fish in a mob of extremely pushy big fish.
Not only is it intimidating being pushed around by other students, but when I’m walking down the hallways it feels like I’m walking in an enclosed box because I can’t see over anyone. Not to mention, it’s a very smelly and sweaty box too.
This summer, I attended the back-to-school bash with my friend, Vicky, to pick up our schedules. At first, everything seemed to be very organized. We were just hanging out by the blow-up bouncy houses that we pretended looked childish but secretly sounded like so much fun.
However, when they announced it was time to line up to get the schedules, it was like a pack of wolves escaped from hell, hungry for classes. Just being around sweaty guys in tank tops is bad enough, but being at armpit level in what seems like a horde of guys who don’t understand the definition of deodorant is gag worthy.
Another issue is walking up the stairs. If I have to go upstairs during passing period and a person is walking right in front of me, their butt is literally in my face. It’s disgusting.
I have to keep my head down to avoid getting a mouthful of random person booty. I can’t even see where I’m going, and I’ve almost fallen dozens of times. See, being short is dangerous.
The teasing short people endure may not be dangerous, but it sure is annoying.
Contrary to popular belief, Tuesday will still be Tuesday even if a vertically challenged person’s shortness is not pointed out.
If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone call me “shrimp,” “short stack,” “shorty,” or just downright “short,” I could buy five inch heels to make me taller.
I don’t take these names to heart, and I have yet to meet someone who does, but my quality of life would definitely not decrease if I didn’t get teased.
Also, I feel like if people do feel the urge to tease us short people, at least take the time to think up more creative names.
Honestly, I’m a little offended that people don’t think we’re good enough to have the privilege of being insulted in an elaborate way. At least Tirado’s sister, Stephanie, is more creative with the name “Oompa Loompa.”
In school, Tirado said that the teasing usually occurs in gym. A lot of people will say something like, “Oh, you’re finally taller than me,” when she’s standing on equipment.
One time in gym class, Tirado’s class was practicing pull-ups. When it was time for Tirado to go, she couldn’t reach the bar. Even when she was on the tips of her toes, she couldn’t reach it. Finally, she stretched her arms as far as they could go and stood on the absolute edge of her toes and just barely grabbed the bar.
Now, being short has its many, many problems, but I’ve found many alternative ways to doing things like standing on a chair to grab stuff or asking some nice tall person to reach things for me.
Many obstacles have been thrown my way because of my height, but I’ve always found a way to reach the goals that seem too high up on the shelf to reach. That’s just life as a short person. I just hope that as my short colleagues and I go on in life, our struggles aren’t as disgusting as a face full of butt.
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The short side of life
January 8, 2016
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