"Can I pick you up?" asked a tall brunette girl I had never met before. I stared at her and responded with a fake smile, "No, no you cannot. I don't like to be picked up." I was glad she had the courtesy to at least ask, sometimes I find myself lifted into the air from behind, by someone I don't even know. She laughed and kept asking. I closed my locker and turned to my best friend I signaled it was time to go.

I was not surprised some stranger asked if she could pick me up, it was typical. When you are 15 a freshman in a new high school, and only a little over 4 foot 3 inches, people are always asking if they can pick you up.

I have always wondered what is it about picking up a short person that intrigues them so much that they feel the need to do so. Why do they feel the need to ask you 50 times how old are you, and then when you tell them they swear your lying. Or why do they want to know just how much you weigh and your exact height? Why can they not accept the fact your short and move on with their lives?

Ever since I was born I have always been small for my age. As a child it never bothered me much but the older I got the more I realized just how "different" I was.

When your two feet shorter then the rest of your class mates, you tend to feel very short! And out of place as if you don't belong. I am 15 and trapped in a 7 year old body! Walking down the hall when the bell rings for me is like walking in a war zone. I constantly have to be careful not to be stepped on or squished. I tend to walk towards the wall, which is not always a smart idea for you could get completely smashed up against the surface.

I always sit in the front of the class, not because I enjoy it but because I have to. Have you ever tried looking over a six foot tall football player whose about 15 times the size of you, during a math lesson? Yeah, its not easy.

I never go shopping with my friends for they all shop at Aeropostale, or Hollister. I however am still shopping from the kids department in Wal-Mart or at Justice. Which brings me to the point of never being able to dress like a teenager, because apparently the hip thing for sizes 6-8 is to stick butter fly's and sequins on absolutely everything.

Going to PG-13 Movie is always complicated too, because I get denied entrance for I am only 8, according to the snooty smart aleck behind the ticket booth. So of course it makes a scene for the whole town to see as I stand there and argue with this crater faced boy that I am 15 and this is discrimination! What's really embarrassing though is when you don't weigh enough in gym class for the BMI Scale to calculate your body mass index, so the gym teacher insists on announcing this phenomenon to the entire class.

I have spent my life in this world meant for tall people. Jumping, straining, and climbing to reach something. I have learned how to deal with the names and all the corny jokes or questions people ask. Like the classic, Are you really that tall? No people I am walking on my knees every day of my life! Seriously? Or when someone drops something and automatically asks you to pick it up because your "closer to the ground."

How about the Oompa Loompa jokes? Yelp I have heard every single one! Oh and when your short it is basically like you are invisible for people only know you as the "short one" and they are constantly looking right over you and asking wheres such and such?!

Even though all of this is annoying, even though I will have to be forever short and will have to live this way forever. I am still kind of glad I am short. I know it is crazy but I cannot imagine if I was taller. It would be weird and unnatural! I have learned to cope with being short though. I realized I am stuck this way and have given up hope of ever growing anymore. It can be tough, I do sometimes wish I was taller, and envy the taller species.

But then I remember this story my mother told me as a child, about all these oysters, and how God put a grain of sand into one and it could do one thing none of the rest could. It could create a pearl, because it was different.
So in a way I am like that one oyster I am special and different and that is what makes me... ME!