Being short when you're hanging out with tall people can be very awkward. I'm 5'1", and while most of my close friends are also very short (we apparently run in packs), there are occasions where I'm the short friend amongst a bunch of tall friends. Being the short friend is almost like being the adopted baby of the group, except that no one explicitly agreed to adopt you, it was just a tacit acceptance and slow evolution of roles in which your tall friends somehow became your protectors. Tall friends like to coddle their short friends, whether consciously or unconsciously. We become either adorable little dolls or terrifying little trolls, and when surrounded by tall people, our shortness becomes a fun novelty.
Short people play up to it as well. I mean, I stopped even trying to get things down from up high a long time ago. Now I just wait for a tall or average sized person to do it for me. So there's give and take, and there's definitely blame on both sides for the awkwardness that ensues in regard to friendship height differences. And boy, does it sometimes get super awkward. Here are 9 awkward things that can happen when you're the short friend with a bunch of tall friends:
1. Your face always ends up wedged between your friends' boobs
When your tall friends hug you, your face instantly winds up between their boobs. You are an inadvertent motorboater, and as largeness of breast goes up on the axis so too does awkward value.
2. You have a lot of trouble sharing height-dependent things i.e. bikes
Sharing a bike with a friend is tough. There are always adjustments. A karaoke microphone on a stand. Equipment at the gym. Nothing ever fits right, and when you step up to use whatever it was that your tall friend was just using, there will be an awkward moments of having to readjust everything to suit your short stature.
3. Sometimes people don't notice that you're there
Sometimes your tall friends will literally just not see you, especially in crowded places. You'll be bumped into and stepped on a lot.
4. You always get carded after your friends have walked straight into the bar, even when you're the oldest
After watching your friends all sashay effortlessly into a bar, the security guard barely batting an eye, you'll be the only one unceremoniously stopped. Not only that, many security guards wont believe you're thirty, and you'll get questioned as though you're a 16-year-old that just got caught in the park with booze by the cops.
5. Your friends want to see if you will fit in a suitcase
WHY DOES EVERYONE WANT TO SEE WHAT THEIR SHORT FRIEND WILL FIT IN? We'll pretend to be annoyed at first, but secretly all short people want to see how small of a space they can fit in too.
6. You can't hear each other speaking
It will happen a lot in noisy environments, where your height renders you literally too far away from one another to hear what the other is saying. There's a lot of awkward nodding and smiling and saying "yes" to things that weren't even questions.
7. You often can't keep pace while walking side-by-side with tall people
For every one step your tall friend takes, you have to take three. You're basically always lightly jogging next to your friends, which makes you look weird and small, almost like a pet.
8. You're the only one who can't see at a show
When you go to concerts and aren't standing right at the front, you can't see anything. Your tall friends will always try to get you to stand in front of them, but it doesn't matter. You still can't see.
9. You're always ushered around with an arm around the shoulder
Your tall friends will always put a protective arm around you in crowded places. Like in a bar, you'll be ushered around by the shoulders like you would break if someone bumped into you. It's sweet, but unnecessary.
Images: Getty Images; Giphy (5)
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