in 9th grade, i was 6' and 197 lbs. I was recruited by the coach of the wrestling team and my two buddies that wrestled... I had to wrestle the coach for practice after I injured the other two 'heavy weights' and they quit the team.

. Obviously, Mr Lister was a good deal better than I was. He was the 'Hot Teacher' that all the sluts lusted after. Rhonda was a team manager just because she wanted to be near him ......anyway...he was a big freeballer. his nads used to hang out of his shorts on a regular basis. Rhonda pointed that out to me one night on the activity Bus. I hadn't noticed. I declined from practicing with him as much as possible after that tho. I never made Varsity. there was a guy that was 250 something that used to just squeeze his oponents into submission. he went undefeated. I never even sparred with him, thank god.

I was able to move my weight down if needed and was an ok wrestler so I went over my weight as well. In two weeks I wrestled matches at 103, 112, 119, 125. (112 was my slot) Didn't win them all, but did finish them all.

When we screwed up we had to face the dirty dozen. That is, you had to wrestle all 12 varsity guys in one practice session, regardless of weightclass. When I got busted for going to McDonald's before a match (after weighins) I got thrown off the team because I offered to wrestle any 12 guys under 150 lbs, but I refused to face the varsity heavyweights. Just stupid. They dropped the policy after the guy who got caught with me cracked a rib. They said I could come back, but eff em. Just seemed pointless after that.

I talled out very young, and was like second or third tallest in my 4th grade class. I know because we had to line up by height. Boy was I self-conscious about it. Probably why I can't stand the sight of myself now. But now, I wish I were 6 feet tall. Seriously.

Oddly, this accurately describes my younger brother. By the time I was in 6th grade he had passed me up. And I am 4 years older.

Several men in my family have had strange growth spurts of 6 inches or more around the age of 25. My little brother is 24 and about 5'7", so he's really hoping...

Oh, yes, this is one of those touchy subjects with some children. I am the oldest of 6 kids but I was never really that tall. Growing up I was always the second shortest kid in my class. There was always one other kid shorter than me.

It never bothered me though, but It really bothered my brother who was two years younger than me. My brother who was 4 years younger was a big kid and around the time they were in 4th and 6th grade they were about the same height. He was worried to the point he wanted to take growth hormones.

Hell, my brother 4 years my junior grew bigger than me in the end. He was 6'3" 210 lbs to my 5'10" 140. We went to the casino in Tahoe a month before my 21th birthday and they carded me and said "oh, not quite 21 yet, you can go play in the arcade" and at the same time offered my brother a drink because he was playing the slots.

In my experience the only way to help them out of it is telling them the advantages of being short. Obviously showing them examples will help, but they will become depressed about it again once someone makes a short or little comment about them.

The sad thing is, the only reason the supposed "popular girls" keep on heckling is because they know it bothers her. If she could only have been like "wow...so what, height really doesnt matter" they would have nothing to say to her.

Flying coach is bad enough for an average sized person. For a tall person, it's downright miserable. When I fly, I always wish that I was around 5 feet tall.

^ yeah, that is an advantage. But it is more of an adult advantage. Most kids arent going to reckonize the relation in that since most kids arent experienced flyers.

You have to relate it so something that pertains to the current time and/or something that makes them feel accomplished.

For instance - say you lost an expensive piece of jewlery down a storm drain and you figure it was gone forever. Someone small like them, fits down there and retrieves it. You then thank them because they were small enough to go down there and get it in a place you are too big to go. It makes them feel accomplished.

I remember that from a Fat Albert episode! And a Brady Bunch episode. I don't think the Partridge Family did it, but I bet someone on Diff'rent Strokes crawled into something to get something.

;)