I'm a short woman. I haven't grown an inch since I was about 12, and I actually lost an inch because I spent a good chunk of my early teens lying down in bed, which decompressed my spine and I was very briefly five-foot-two. Standing normally I'm five foot, if I draw myself up to my full height I'm five-foot-one. This is several inches shorter than the average American woman; I'm so short 'petite' clothes designed for the 5'-5'4" woman need hemming for me to wear them. The world is the totally wrong size for me. The only chairs that my feet touch the ground in are antiques and children's. I can't rest my foot on the floor of the car and press the gas pedal unless I'm in at least a 2 inch heel.
All this to say, I know I'm short.
After years of avoiding heels (you would too if you lived with vertigo/dizziness for years and years) I have finally started wearing them, because they make it easier to drive/reach things/write on a chalkboard, starting with low heels which didn't change my perspective too much. Then last week, I made the final leap and bought some 4 inch stilettos. In the store, things didn't look so different.
I couldn't believe how different my house looked and felt being 4 inches taller.
My first thought was "So this is how normal people see my house".
I also suddenly realized why no one understands when I complain about desk and table heights. They are a perfectly good height for normally-height-ed people.
Absolutely none of this should have come as a shock.
It was absolutely shocking.
And it made me a lot more sympathetic to people who just don't understand when I explain an experience. It is incredibly difficult to see from a perspective other than your own, unless given a chance to literally do so. I can't wait for realistic virtual reality machines to see what being able to experience, as close to in the flesh as possible, the life of another does to humanity.
Enlightenment through shoes. Who knew?
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