The thing about me is#2

Welcome to another exciting instalment of...

The thing about me is! Issue#2

Yes, it's a brand new month and we're all welcoming in Spring (or in Wales - a less cold version of Winter) to open mine up I'm delivering an interesting fact about me in some long winded tale of a blog post. This one is concerning a physicality of mine--we I'm sure I could refer to it like that---that if you saw me from a distance you'd notice immediately: I'm a rather large bloke. And when I mean rather large bloke: I'm 6 feet and 7 inches of height at the age of 16. To the rural Welsh mountains this is incredibly odd and never do people fail to point it out at some time during my day.

It's one of those things though that because it's thrust upon me by nature/God/the man behind the curtain etc,. that I try my very best to never define me. If you know me, you'll know my height is just some added feature of my...eccentricity. Yes, we'll use that for now. Generally I'm not even aware that I'm as tall as I am unless I happen to be having a tall day which can consist of me seeing that the sink is low down or someone is rather smaller then I am or my line of vision is actually a lot higher then everyone's. But generally, I just do not notice that I'm a Giant amongst Welsh Gnomes/People*.

How do you forget your tallness? Surely it is something that can't be forgotten ever with all the banging of the head? 

You'd think, would you? But no. I've been on the 98th percent aisle (man it took me four times to type 98. It's really hard without looking at the keyboard!) since birth - as my brother puts it I was a "hairy baguette" and so I'm use to being tall. There are exactly four people I can remember properly who I have recollection of being taller then me: my godparents** friend who was part of their choir, a guy who was 6''08 when I was 13 and in school with me - Bobbert, "Crouch" a guy from my brother's year but I seem to have surpassed him by now and a bloke in an orchestra I use to attend when I screeched along on a violin/viola who was taller then me for a long time. 

There were "those guys" who were older then me but I seem to just have a good perception of beginning highschool feeling rather small compared to them so I'm not sure if we were the same height. But those four are basically the only reoccurring people in my life who I've felt shorter than. Because of this, it just becomes a passing thought mostly in my mind. I've been tall all my life so being tall so I guess it's just what I'm use to. Which I do recommend for anyone who has something perhaps 'noticeable' to remember whilst you're livin' and some jackass points it out: it is something you've had your life, just roll with it. 

But, saying that, I do get annoyed by every damn time someone goes "wow, you're tall! Gosh how tall are you?" and all that. Or, (something I really hate) "what do they feed you?!" What the hell do you think? Food obviously. I mean, that's a bit sarcastic as an answer but damn it -- I'm tall so obviously I just have a lot of food and it's known there isn't any food that makes you tall, god damn it! OR OR, something that really annoys me: 

"Why are you so tall?" 

My Uncles, Great-Grandfather were all over 6ft on my Mother's side, I think my Grandmother was fairly tall. Her husband, my Grandfather, had a rather tall male line if I remember correctly. My Dad is 5''10, the shortest of his family and his siblings are at least 6ft. Thus, genetics. So bloody assume it's in my blood somewhere! Or, hey, think about this: we don't know why people are tall or small unless it's something like Dwarfism or Giantism. So like you, just go off the fact that you have small/tall family members that shape together to make you, dumbass! 

I don't know otherwise, I just have to go off that. But what do know is that I am not defined by my height at all. My ex-girlfriend, who you'll notice a lot of mentions in this because people like that do have a lot of mention in thine life, was 5''02. During the course of our relationship it was rare for me to ever notice our height difference properly unless I was having a tease at her height. The reason I did a lot of this is because I must live with the annoyance of back ache, knee pains, sometimes banging my head on door frames and not to mention a ridiculous amount of annoying questions. 

I wanted to sometimes not only take pride in my height but be able to show off about it. Which is strange; I don't really think about it often but it's more a "well fuck you then" to those people who have. I'm sort of anti-being-tall sometimes but try to seldom the good bits when I can. (But, I do issue a public apology to my Ex for mocking her height as pointing it out if you're tall or small can make you quite self-concious). But, here's an interesting observation I've made over time: 

You'd never point out a Dwarf's height, it's considered rude. 

Why do the same to me? It comes from Ancient Greece's ideas of tall Gods being beautiful, Aphrodite the classic example. Tallness supposedly symbolises Alpha Male strength and that you are a powerful figure. In the opening evening to my hopefully new school (as I'm moving for Sixth form, talk for another blog post!), I spoke to the Drama Teacher who said "you're outrageously tall, you will have such great presence, I can see it!" I guess that is true but, I don't think our bodies, made so by such biological structures we've been 'blessed with' should define our character. 

We're much more then what our body ever gives us credit for, or maybe sometimes perceived as more because of our bodies. Maybe it's just my opinion of someone who has lost patience for not being defined as something aside from being until people get to know me (which take five minutes). I feel sorry for those who cannot speak up as much as I can because, frankly, they'll always just been known as "the tall one." And that's a real shame as a gem of personality can be missed out, I'm just lucky that I have too much personality for it to be missed when you meet me. 

So, the thing about me is...I'm bloody tall. But it's not that special, really. 

*no offence to Gnomes intended but I can't say the same for the Welsh. However,  just a gentle reminder: I get to be racist non-Welsh readers, I'm from Wales, I will make sure you're smashed in Cymro style if you are. Funny thing about that, we are more patriotic outside of our country. "Can't take the Wales out of the boy" syndrome, I guess.

**Or Soh-Chims, as they would insist. I have around three sets of these now, don't ask. But you can obviously tell my Parents are my Parents because they're weird enough to name something like the guardians-just-in-case-anything-bad-happens-to-them after the Klingon one.