So I went to my brother's high school graduation. The whole thing ends, and everyone meets in the cafeteria for refreshments. As soon as I step into the horde of people, I notice something right away: I'm the shortest dude in the room...!
I'm not sure what kids have been eating in recent years, but it has made them progressively taller. Five feet eight inches was considered normal in Hong Kong. Now I think the average height of kids is more like 5'11". Perhaps it is my imagination. Maybe everyone was always tall, and I was always short. Perhaps all those years in Boston gave me the perception that it was normal for me to be short, and I expected something different back in Hong Kong.
Normally, I feel pretty normal in and around Hong Kong. It was just yesterday when I walked into that school where I felt so dwarfed. Then when I think about it, every time I go (not often) to one of those trendy clubs (*cough* Volar *ahem*), I feel like I'm one of the shortest people there (girls included... okay okay half of them are models). Kids these days are just tall.
Sure, its not the end of the world by any means, but it did occur to me that my height is one aspect about my physique that I can never ever change no matter what. I can eat tuna all day, and lift weights until I'm 200lbs of pure muscle. I can get plastic surgery until I look like [insert trendy Hong Kong artist of the month]. I can get a tan, bleach my skin, shave my head, grow it out, get botox, implants, even a bigger penis (according to all those emails), but I still can't permanently increase my height.
There's a limit to everything, and since the age of 16, I've been vertically limited to 5'8". There's a ceiling or maximum potential for everything. Everyone has the potential to do certain things, but everyone for the most part doesn't make an effort to reach that potential. A lot of people easily have the potential to bench press their own weight. A lot of people simply don't strive for that goal and fail to reach it.
With height, we always reach that potential. If I'm 5'8" at the age of 26, no one is going to tell me that I have the potential to be 6'3". Instead they say, that's tough kid, you're a hobbit.
I'm not sure what kids have been eating in recent years, but it has made them progressively taller. Five feet eight inches was considered normal in Hong Kong. Now I think the average height of kids is more like 5'11". Perhaps it is my imagination. Maybe everyone was always tall, and I was always short. Perhaps all those years in Boston gave me the perception that it was normal for me to be short, and I expected something different back in Hong Kong.
Normally, I feel pretty normal in and around Hong Kong. It was just yesterday when I walked into that school where I felt so dwarfed. Then when I think about it, every time I go (not often) to one of those trendy clubs (*cough* Volar *ahem*), I feel like I'm one of the shortest people there (girls included... okay okay half of them are models). Kids these days are just tall.
Sure, its not the end of the world by any means, but it did occur to me that my height is one aspect about my physique that I can never ever change no matter what. I can eat tuna all day, and lift weights until I'm 200lbs of pure muscle. I can get plastic surgery until I look like [insert trendy Hong Kong artist of the month]. I can get a tan, bleach my skin, shave my head, grow it out, get botox, implants, even a bigger penis (according to all those emails), but I still can't permanently increase my height.
There's a limit to everything, and since the age of 16, I've been vertically limited to 5'8". There's a ceiling or maximum potential for everything. Everyone has the potential to do certain things, but everyone for the most part doesn't make an effort to reach that potential. A lot of people easily have the potential to bench press their own weight. A lot of people simply don't strive for that goal and fail to reach it.
With height, we always reach that potential. If I'm 5'8" at the age of 26, no one is going to tell me that I have the potential to be 6'3". Instead they say, that's tough kid, you're a hobbit.
4 comments:
if you a hobbit i am screwed stanting all of 5'2" tall!! but its all the hormones and the whack stuff in the processed foods that the new generation is growing up on.. the average height of the world in general is increasing im sure if i did research we can prove this.
now back to watchin the heat game
oh ps: yanks and sox lose and now the jays are 1 game out of 1st!
Lets all go live in the Shire! =D
Yes justin, The kids nowadays are teller, and basically mature in an earlier Stage~ They are better feed, And the food nowadays are filled with, well, have a lot of steroids and other additives.
Anyways, I actually thinks the people in Hong Kong are shorter then the Taiwan Average. Also, I think the HK guys are Skinny as well, I mean~ They are BONE skinny. That is the major Problem.
BTW, THat's why it is really confusing to try to hook up girls these days. a Full devploed girl might turns out to be underage. And an under Dev. one is Actually legal~ WTF~@!? ~!
5''8 is short... geez. I feel even worse now. Then again, you're a guy so maybe it's different, but I really don't think so because 5''8 is actually a pretty good height for a guy.
I'm 5''0, so I don't think I'm even a hobbit! Darn... Even the Shire's too big for me!
Anyway, the only time I don't feel as bad is when I see someone who is shorter than me. Then I think how lucky I am. You should think taht way too. You'll feel luckier many more times than me because there are fewer people who are shorter than me. (kids don't count unless they're taller than me! @_@)
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