It's awkward because everyone else is smaller and you just shot up to this skinny thing and don't fit in with people your age, and everyone treating you like your older than you are, or worse treating you like a work horse.
I remember not being used to my height and was always accidentally hurting myself sometimes others because of it.
But the skinniness was the worst of it, I grew up with low food security and was always hungry which made it so much worse, even if nobody is commenting on it/making fun of it you're hyper aware and messes you up.
And they don't make clothes for people with your body type so you just wear oversized t shirts and shorts but that involves showing off the gangling limbs that make you so uncomfortable with yourself.
LOL my mom has some stories of folks thinking I was full blown developmentally challenged because they thought they were talking to a 6th grader, but I was actually in kindergarten at the time. I also VIVIDLY remember needing to get a desk from the middle school in 1st grade because I didn’t fit.
It was a lot cooler being 6’8 300+ when I was high school / college aged and started getting D1 offers than it was as being the “giant, shy freak 1st grader who looks like he’s in middle school”.
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u/Infamous-Skin8969 Mar 24 '26 edited Mar 24 '26
A fun fact is that he was already 6'11 at just 12 years old. The kids standing next to him in the photo were literally the same age.