My name is Pat – which is short for Patricia. It is the only “short” thing about me. I‘m just under 6’4” tall and recently celebrated my 54th birthday – yikes! I‘m doing the best I can to age gracefully and so far, I think I‘m doing just fine.

“I knew I was taller than my peers – boys and girls – by the time I was in Kindergarten”.

From an early age I felt different.

Being so much taller than other children raised the expectations of the adults around me. They expected me to be more mature than my age, more polished, to have better manners, to be more articulate, more intelligent, etc.

I did the best I could to rise to their expectations but have often looked back upon those years as lost years of childhood.

When I entered high school at age fourteen, I was already 6‘ tall.

My mother dragged me to a pediatric specialist to have bone x-rays taken of my hands in order to get a guarantee that I wouldn‘t grow anymore. The doctor looked at the x-rays and promised her that I’d stopped growing. (I was almost 6‘4″ by the time I graduated). So much for science and medicine!

Out of 2,800 kids in my large private high school, the one boy taller than me only dated shorter girls. So, I gave up on the notion of meeting or dating taller men for several years. Funny thing, I found that many people assumed that I was a dominant personality when they saw me holding hands with a much shorter guy even if they knew nothing about me!

I also found that much older guys were very attracted to me and considered me some kind of trophy girlfriend to enhance their self-esteem. That had limited appeal for me.

I was commuting on the New Haven train line when I met the one man who has ever intimidated me with his size, my husband Marc. He is 6‘6″ tall and a big guy. The first time he spoke to me I felt all small and girly – which was the first time I‘d ever had that experience. Prior to that I always felt like the incredible hulk or the jolly green giant around just about everyone. But with this man, I felt “right sized”. We are still happily married after almost 30 years.

I‘ve used my stature to my advantage – did some modeling, although I was considered too tall for runway modeling, did professional coaching and public speaking and ran for a local public office.

Being tall inspires people to entrust me with leadership abilities and wisdom.

Sometimes I think they subconsciously interact with me as if I‘m their parent and defer to me as though I‘m older and wiser despite their ages and mine.

Yes, being tall has many advantages; however, most of the world is not built for people over average height. We all know the challenges of buying clothes and shoes to fit; along with trying to fit our long limbs into tight spaces (i.e. cars).

Twenty-five years ago, our son was born. He is now 6‘5.5″ and I did the best I could to protect his childhood by reminding folks of his real age whenever they assumed otherwise. Of course, this protection wasn‘t perfectly seamless as I couldn‘t be with him all the time. Today, his height opens doors for him within his career because people assume he is older than 25 years. He has the normal tall person challenges. as I mentioned above but his height and attractiveness does not go ignored either. The only complaint I have about him thus far is that he is drawn to women who are much shorter than him! What is UP with that??

I look forward to getting to know all of you. Please send in any questions you may have about my tall journey. As you may have noticed, I‘ve been around a bit longer than most of you and may have some experience I can share that will
be helpful.

(This letter has been my inspiration and was written 10 years ago. Pat if you are reading this I want to say THANK YOU! ~Kaye)