Advanced Essay #1: Acceptance

Taking one step at a time

My goal was to show people how I felt throughout the process of accepting my height. I talk about ways that helped me accept being short and the disadvantages and advantages that helped me overcome everything.  I also go a little into how it is okay to be different and not everyone is capable of everything. Lastly, the writing skills I would like to improve on is always making sure everything flows and being very descriptive so the reader won't be confused. 

Acceptance

The word acceptance means “the action of consenting to receive or undertake something offered.” Now everyone has to learn about acceptance in their life, but me, I had to learn very early. I didn’t get to learn the easy way and being short is something that wasn’t offered to me, it is something that I am now stuck with for the rest of my life.

I sat there on my bed, staring up into the ceiling. I looked at my little legs and said to myself, “Why am I so short?” I tried to think of all the reasons, such as not eating the right foods or maybe it was my family genetics. I couldn’t stop pondering because I needed some closure. Everyone around me would not stop talking about the fact that I was so short. They made it seem like it wasn’t normal being short, and I didn’t want to be the girl that wasn’t normal or be the short girl at all. My height took so many things away from me, like standing in a big crowd waiting for the next celebrity to take the stage.

“Hey Briannie, you good?” my friend asks me while we are in a big crowd where everyone is literally on top of one another. “I guess,” I say knowing that I am not good. Concerts can be a pain sometimes, especially when you are only 5 feet tall in the middle of the crowd where there is no air to breath. In my head, I was thinking, “Is Nicki Minaj really worth passing out in the middle of all these people?” It was like there was no air down around me. Since I was so small and there were all these giants surrounding me, there was so much body heat on me. At that point, I gave up and left the crowd.

Being short interferes with these life activities and that is when it becomes a struggle. I can’t fully experience things like this because there is no way to fix it. I feel like the outcast, and I feel like I’m missing out. When there are disadvantages I can’t solve, it would be used against me and that was the hardest part to accept. Whether it was a joke or not, being teased would hurt. I always wondered what it would feel  like to be tall and to be able to actually see. The best way I did learn to accept it was short people aren’t the only ones who get teased about their height. There are things I can do that others wouldn’t be able to do because of their height as well. Although, there are some disadvantages that I could solve unlike this one.

“Briannie!” I rushed downstairs to the loud sound of my name. “Yes?” I asked very calmly. “Can you grab the two bowls on the top shelf?” my mom asked as she pointed to the shelf where the bowls were placed. “No problem, I got you.” As I walked over to the cabinet, I picked up a chair from the dining room table and placed it right against the cabinet. I hopped onto the chair and grabbed the bowls. I handed them to my mom, got down from the chair and put the chair back at the dining room table. “You’re a lifesaver,” my mom said with a little grin on her face.

I had to be very open to all options when trying to solve most of my disadvantages as a short person. Not being able to reach things that are high up can be frustrating. When I would finally solve some of my disadvantages, I didn’t feel like the outcast or the girl that wasn’t normal. It helped me come over the insecurities of being short. It opened my mind up that there are always solutions to most things and when there isn’t, it’s okay. Not everyone is perfect and there are always gonna be people who have higher advantages than others.

Experience after experience, my height has defined who I am. There are always gonna be disadvantages that I won’t be able to solve and have learned to accept that. I feel if I wasn’t short, I wouldn’t be the same person. Watching all of the tall people, and seeing how the struggles I went through were so easy for them made me feel a certain type of way. It made me wonder and hate the fact I was short. All of my life, everyone has used my height as a joke towards me or teased me or even use it as a description. I am not sad anymore when someone jokes about my height or teases me, I just laugh with them. Whenever someone does use my height to describe me, it gives me a feeling that I am different from most people and it is okay to be different. My height is something I love about myself and no one can take that away from me.