For me, post baby… Now a days, I could probably stand to lose a pound or two.
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My weight normalized in college, and then settled on me after childbirth, giving me the shape of a ‘slender’ coke-bottle.
Which is nice, now, I guess; but being tiny sure sucked as a kid.
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Indeed! Although I can’t imagine that you weren’t still very outspoken, etc, even though you were smallish.
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I didn’t think it was the case, it’s just where my mind went when I read what you said.
I was a scrawny kid, and I couldn’t throw, but I could dodge and catch which made me a risky target. Until I was the last kid on my side left. Then the pain came.
The most fun I had in elementary school gym was when they would bust out the giant parachute, or when we played scooter ball.
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I wasn’t, actually. I was bullied and pushed around for a long time, until I finally got fed up enough to fight back.
That’s probably why I vehemently hate bullies to this day, why I go out of my way to defend others, and why I take no shit from anyone unless it’s absolutely necessary for maintaining my safety and well being, or that of my kid.
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You and me both, sister… and it also informs my intolerance to bullies.
Although I think most people who experienced this growing up has one of two reactions - it makes them intolerant of bullying or it turns them into bullies themselves, when they get the opportunity. It’s one thing I’ve been glad to see in recent years, a cultural conversation around bullying in general (and especially around bullying of LBGQT kids).
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This sounds exactly like my own progression. I was small, withdrawn and introverted. I wasn’t exposed to any sports at home. I have bad memories of playground games like dodgeball, and P.E. classes dominated by asshole boys who effectively prevented people like me from ever really playing or exploring the sports in class.
When I got older I decided I’d never let people treat me or others like that again.
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We should form a club 
But in my case, I suddenly transformed from the weakest and second smallest kid in school (with my coke-bottle thick glasses and weird ideas, the bullies and their syncophants were basically lined up waiting when I walked home from elementary school every day) to the second largest (but, unfortunately, also the least coordinated, for the next couple of years). I grew roughly two feet taller in two years, most of it over a single summer, which was excruciatingly painful and left these stretch marks laddering my thighs.
I probably take far more delight in thrashing bullies than I should.
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I’m sorry about the earlier years and the discomfort you experienced in your fast growth spurt, but glad to hear that things got better.
When my body changed things just got more complicated- developing large breasts between sixth and seventh grade wasn’t really helpful.
Recently I read an article in which an actress is quoted as saying that "big boobs have the effect of announcing your presence in a room as if you’re cradling Gilbert Godfrey singing the opening to the ‘Circle of Life.’” This is true, and especially uncomfortable during adolescence. Not just in the form of unwanted comments and touching at school, but in a lot of public spaces.
Growing up is rough! Cheers to making it through it.
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In my place and time, “smear the queer” was known as “kill the dill with the pill”.
Same game, just a different name.
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