As originally published on kevinunverified.com
My girlfriend Claire and I are similar in a lot of ways, but one way we really differ is in our height; I'm 6'5" and she's like 5' (minus a couple of inches). Anytime we "forget" the foot and a half difference, strangers are always nice enough to make a comment on the discrepancy, as if they are the first to give us the heads up. I mean, I get the novelty of it but like...don't you think we realize it by now!?
Of course, the height difference took some getting used to for both of us, but we just recently celebrated our three-year anniversary, so clearly we’ve made the best of it!
Without further ado, here are some of the pros and cons of having a significant other who is significantly shorter (or taller) than you are.
Pros
1. Nobody is still hungry after going out to eat
I eat a lot and Claire doesn’t eat much (for reference, an apple fills her up), so when we go out to eat, it goes something like this:
Claire eats half of her entree and I eat all of mine, plus Claire’s leftovers. It’s perfect; I get to eat one and a half entrees and nothing gets wasted. Another bonus is any time Claire goes out to dinner with others, she always brings me her leftovers, which is nice!
2. You can maximize storage space in your kitchen, closets, pantry, etc.
I store all my stuff in the higher shelves/spaces, and Claire stores all of her stuff in the lower shelves/spaces. If both of you are tall, nobody is going to want to lower shelves/spaces, and vice versa if you’re both short. The cabinets, closets and pantry in our apartment are being used to their full capacity!
3. You don’t have to spend money on concert tickets/shows, unless there are assigned seats
Claire and I have dated three years now and haven’t been to a concert together. Why? For starters, my height ruins the show for everyone a few rows behind me. Claire obviously has the opposite problem, and can’t see anything that’s happening on stage. I’m fine with it though; generally speaking I’m not a fan of large crowds and most of my favorite bands don’t visit D.C. that often anyway.
4. An older Asian woman on the subway might ask you if you guys are a figure-skating duo
I don’t even have to explain how this is a pro; it just is. Claire and I still laugh when we think about it and how we had to stifle laughter when we told her that no, we were not in fact a figure skating duo, just a regular couple.
Cons
1. Finding clothing is next to impossible for both of you
Claire and I have such a hard time finding clothes that fit us, obviously for completely different reasons. There have been so many times where I’ve tried on shorts or pants that were half a foot too short, or shirts with sleeves that ended at my wrists. Conversely, Claire is constantly ordering stuff online and trying it on, which is super entertaining because the smallest sizes (like XS) at a lot of stores are still too big on her. Claire has joked about starting her own blog to document the things she has tried on that are comically big on her. It makes me wonder how much bigger the smaller sizes have gotten as women have gotten lowkey thicc-er (thanks, Nicki).
2. You can’t ever hold hands if you’re both standing
We learned this the hard way one of the first times we held hands early on in our relationship. It was at night and our shadows looked just like a dad walking while holding his 5-year-old daughter's hand. I was really grossed out and we haven't held hands since. We're not big hand-holders but it certainly is easier if we're sitting together on the couch, at a movie, etc. but holding hands while standing or walking out in public is a no-go.
3. You can't ever dance (in public)
This goes without saying. There's no dance move, appropriate or not, that works with a foot and a half height difference. If we end up getting married, we certainly won't be able to have a first dance, which is fine by me because, like most of us, I hate people staring at me.
4. People give us weird looks or make semi-rude comments
I sort of touched on this earlier but people have some surprisingly frank things to say about the difference in height. In fact, some of the employees at the grocery store across the street from our apartment have been the biggest culprits. People must think it's funny but there's sort of a fine line between funny and rude and I think people toe that line. However, there have been some flattering things said, like the one time a grocery bagger said I looked like an NBA player and I was like “Haha no I just sit in front of a computer all day,” and that was the end of that conversation.
So there you go, those are our pros and cons. Overall though, things are great...I mean, just look how happy we are! If Claire were taller she’d block out Cinderella’s castle....
