Alaskan Bulgarian

Curiosity Leads Me umm, Higher, I Guess

I found this, here:

"TCI's stated purpose is "to promote tall awareness among tall men and women, and in the community. To provide social activities of mutual interest, travel to cities around the U.S. and Canada for gatherings including members from several TCI clubs, run a convention each year to conduct the business of the Corporation with representatives of all clubs, and select a new Miss Tall International®, the official public representative and goodwill ambassador for TCI."

The idea that tall people need "awareness" made me chuckle. Never in my life of always being tall for my age and now being a tall 6'7 have I felt a need to scream out "I'm here, dammit!" If anything, much of my life has been a self-conscious worry storm as I realize day after day that my head, shoulders and chest are usually always sticking out above crowds. A different sort of person would use that to his advantage, but the idea of being a person who always makes himself known frightens me a little and seems like an awful lot of work.

And there's a "goodwill ambassador" in the organization. If you too are curious about tall people, the current Miss Tall International® is also a member of the finance board of the TCI Treasurer Club. Shnazzy.

In all honesty, I came to the site by googling "tall people" in an effort to be more "aware" of those great mutants like myself. A fascinating group of pages pops up. Steven Landsburg has an old Slate article that concludes that it isn't the way people see tall people that makes them more successful than the average. Instead, the self-esteem that we get while adolescents gives us a great little push through life (Good for us!). Noted in the article is the fact that early youth has little to do with permanent self-esteem in tall folk. I can attest to this. Being a gentle giant type only gets a person made fun of in the early years. People expect a bully or something, I don't know. Anyway, high school was where I hit my stride and although not everything in life is clicking even now (maybe a lot isn't clicking), I definitely feel like that higher gear is there if I keep trying to hit it. Being tall probably has something or other to do with that confidence.

For now, being tall in Bulgaria as a Peace Corps Volunteer means that every doorframe, tree branch, and piece of rebar is out to get me. Pretty much it, really. I also get asked daily about the old height. In America I'd joke that people asked me every day about how tall I was, even if it was, maybe, once a week. Here it's a reality. Strangers come up to me in the center of town and ask how tall I am. The number 201 (cm) has been burned into my Bulgarian memory. It's pleasant, in its way, I seem more comfortablt with the tall conversation here than I did in America. In America I always wanted to come up with something clever and it probably made me look like I was brushing people off. Here I just run through the paces like I do with any basic Bulgarian conversation. Usually, the strangers just keep walking on, awed by the power of the number, I guess.

So, Awareness? No, I don't need awareness. Maybe those with Marfans could use a hand every now and then, and I hope that's what TCI means in its intro. For me, I'm just happy to be tall and know that it's probably the one thing about me that will never change.

Posted by Rob at October 25, 2004 03:39 PM