For most of my life I’ve had a hang-up about being too short. I don’t have a clue what the average or median height is but I know that when I reached thirty-something, my younger brother had blossomed to six-feet plus.
Of course I was jealous as I had always been taller than my three sisters which always gave me a surge of authority when they were around. I was even a shade taller than my Dad and had an inch or two on my mother. Now I had the dilemma of my brother taking me down a peg or two.
If I known he was in the works for our family, I would considered the ways and means of increasing the height that I stopped at. I know that a person’s height is mostly determined by things out of their control, like genetics. However, you can control some factors that affect height during your teen years like your diet and activity levels. Plus, if you’ve stopped growing, you can look taller than you are by following a few style tips.
If I had only been savvy enough to know that a balanced diet was important when I was still growing and would build strong bones and muscles. Even when I stopped growing, eating a balanced diet can help you stay lean, which can make you look taller. But the fact is my diet was likely to be as unbalanced as it was balanced. I don’t recall what I ate last week let alone so many years ago. I don’t really recall if I got enough Vitamin D to promote bone and muscle growth – I wasn’t fond of milk unless it was chocolate.
Getting regular exercise would have helped the cause to grow taller during your teen years. However there was nothing remotely related to a gymnasium like in today’s venues. Two sport teams: Baseball in the summer that rarely could muster nine players who could hit a ball whizzing across the plate or trapping a grounder and whipping it over to first base in time for an out. Hockey was the main attraction and ice time was determined by how skillful one was. I was definitely a third stringer or fourth line if extra players were on hand. My skating acumen left a lot to be desired. I blame on wearing bob-skates until I was six. My Dad was hounding me to wear normal skates, until the day he threw them in the garbage and I had no choice. In a way I wish he done that three or four years earlier.
If possible try not to stunt your growth. There isn’t a lot you can do to increase your height, but you can take several steps to make sure your natural height isn’t shortened by environmental influences. Drugs and alcohol are both thought to contribute to stunted growth if they’re ingested while you’re young. To do that I’d have to live on someone’s back-forty acres. Back in the day, teenagers need friends at all costs and that meant experimenting here and there without it becoming a problem.
If I couldn’t be taller, at least I could emphasize my height by standing up straight instead of hunching my back and pulling my shoulders back and slightly together. The good posture was sort of tiring so I saved my energy to when my brother was around. Having a good posture will make you appear a little taller. Also, slim-fitting clothes and no horizontal stripes were a boost.
Back to my brother. I wanted to believe that he couldn’t help himself when calling me “Shortstop,” “Half-pint,” and “Pygmy,” – including more that weren’t so nice. He never gave his exact height, only that he was over six feet. I can’t recall how many times I’ve tried to catch him asleep with his lags outstretched. I always had a tape measure handy in the event I could measure him.
Despite all the tomfoolery of nicknames I let them wash away like water off a duck’s back. I make certain when I e-mail him though, I address him as “Lil Brother” because he was in the beginning.
