#short person problems

[xx-state-of-mind-xx]

Lesso: I love making short jokes about Clarissa.

Lesso: They go right over her head.

[wafaaaahhh]

sketchbook monster guy and some weird short person

[lil-als]

Having tall friends is so fun. They’ll scare you as a fun little joke and your heart skips a beat because slenderman just fucking crept up behind you… except no it’s just your mate

[ericcarrsworshipper]

Idk how I'm gunna walk in them but they're about 7 inches. It puts me at average height since im very tiny. Its a whole new world!

Small gang rise up

@spacefoxy those platforms I was on about lol.

[vinceldoesstuff]

Help my life has hit a new low….

[candleonfire]

Guys, I just saw a hawk hide your short kings and queens🙏 stay safe out there

[doobadoobie]

ok so I guess i’m very short

[xx-state-of-mind-xx]

Lesso: How y’a doing short stack?

Dovey: …*sigh*

Dovey: As you have continued to observe, you are taller. Since we have now established this, I’m now going to hit you with a chair. Because I’m not the bigger person.

Lesso: Wait, what?

Lesso: OW!

[lemongrablothbrok]

What I love best about the spring and summer months is that's when they start selling cropped pants. Or, as I like to call them, normal-length pants.

(I'm ridiculously short. That's it. That's the joke.)

[king-ennui]

High bar stalls are a nightmare when your 5ft nothing. It's like climbing a mountain. Curse my little leggies.

[snail-friend]

I've been told to just take home the pair of work gloves I use for outdoor shit bc I'm the only one who needs such a small size so they forget to put them in the equipment bag haha.... On the bright side! As the only size 4 shoe wearer I don't have to wear Waders full of other peoples sweat lmao

Me and the other arborist trainees: -sorting through a pile of logging chaps-

Moose, 6 feet tall, holding up a pair that barely covers his shins: are these for a child?

Me, 5 foot 5, bitterly: gimme those.

Me: -tries them on, they drag on the ground-

[maybeamiles]

So you guys know how being too tall for airplane seats can hurt your knees and back? Did you know that being too short for airplane seats can do the same thing?

[screambirdscreaming]

Something that peeves me whenever I see another post going around with some variation on "autistic people take things literally which means we are the only people who communicate Clearly and Directly" is that - for any given statement, there is not one singular, agreed on, universal Literal Interpretation. If there was, none of this would be a problem!

The nature of language is that there's always some degree of interpretability. Words have several different meanings, often overlapping, and there's nuance of context, cultural references, and so on.

Faced with a statement, most people will quickly come up with an interpretation that to them makes the most sense. But if you asked a roomful of people to explain in detail their interpretations, everyone's would probably be a little different, even for a pretty simple statement. Regardless of whether those people are autistic! Everyone conceptualizes the world a little differently, and everyone has a unique personal history of all the language they've encountered, and these things effect our interpretations.

In order for communication to be workable, given this slosh in interpretability, there's another couple of processes that go on. As conversation goes on, people reassess if their initial interpretation matches up with additional context. If it doesn't, they revise it, or ask clarifying questions. And on the flipside of this process, the other person in conversation is tracking if your reactions make sense with *their* understanding of what they're trying to convey to you, and offering context or rephrasing things if it seems you're out of alignment.

These processes are social skillsets that are, like most social skillsets, not ever directly articulated or explained. Many people are bad at one or both. Sometimes you encounter someone who is really, notably good at it - the vaunted "good listener", who puts in the effort to really understand what you're trying to say, or that really excellent teacher who engages with you back and forth until you really get it. But a lot of the time, it's a sort of passive social friction - people just not getting each other.

Sometimes, you encounter someone whose brain works so much like yours that talking to them feels almost effortless - you just get each other. But that's a pretty rare occurrence for anyone. More often, as you get to know someone, you start to understand the shape of the way they interpret things and learn to account for it, so over time it's easier to make sense to each other.

It's honestly not uncommon in society for people to aggregate in groups of people who interpret things similarly, and who are thus easier to talk to, rather than actually building the skills of communicating across interpretation gaps. Particularly egregious are those groups of men who talk about Women as an incomprehensible monolith, but it turns up to a greater or lesser degree on a lot of levels.

I suspect this is the root of a lot of parenting problems - people who have never built this communication skillset, and relied on choosing friends who make sense to them without a lot of effort, and who are then totally unprepared to interact with a child who interprets things in ways they don't expect.

Obviously I can't speak to The Universal Typical Experience, not least because it doesn't exist. But in general I would posit that:

Most people, give or take a few assholes, are not trying to say things that are confusing. Most people think they are communicating clearly, because the first interpretation *they* would come up with on hearing one of their own sentences is the correct interpretation.

Many people are not very good at accounting for different ways people could interpret things they're saying. However, it is normal and polite social behavior to be somewhat flexible about this and forgiving of misunderstandings. If people are being shitty to you about not understanding them, they are assholes. And I wouldn't assume that the rest of the communication they have with everyone else they know goes totally smoothly for them.

I suspect there is a bit of an unfortunate feedback loop, where people have bad experiences when someone gets mad at them for not getting something, and learn to hide when they're confused. Which then leads to larger, more complicated misunderstandings, which other different people get upset at them about, because those people think they should have asked for clarification in the first place.

Truly you can't win with everyone. No one can win with everyone. There is no monolith of "neurotypical communication" which resolves all these contradictions - all those people you're lumping in together under "neurotypical" have just as much trouble with each other.

[jodoesnew]

On the other end

A small dcaXy/n idea I had

Premis: Y/N works part time in the daycare but doesn't really interact with the dca which doesn't mean the dca didn't notice them there.

Start of the story

Y/N gets messages from an unknown number and decides to answer

They start messaging thinking that they don't know each other at all

They notice that the tone and wording in the messages switches completely throughout the day but get used to it way too fast

Y/N's life is a complete mess right now so Unknown is a pleasant distraction

They never tell each other their real names but use nicknames instead

Both share how they feel often and text about life and just anything that they think of

Someday y/n just calls their unknown friend to share some great news because they have no one else they want to share it with

They don't pick up but call back later

A male voice they have never heard answers. A pleasant one. They talk for hours.

But the voice tells them to only call at night bc he can't talk on the phone while working. But texting is fine

Y/N falls in love over late night phone calls and long text convos

They ask if they could meet up and hang out

He doesn't answer

The connection goes silent

The last thing he sent is "I'm so sorry. But I can't" written only a few minutes after their question (in the middle of the day)

Hours go by and they get no answer from him anymore

Hurt and worried Y/N is in a daze of crying and starring at nothing for the rest of the week

This is when Y/N misses their break bc they stayed in the daycare closet to cry

As they step out the daycare is dark sth that Y/N was never there to see

Then they hear it. The voice of the person they love singing from where the kids are sleeping.

Y/N stumbles through the dark until they reach the kids and lock eyes with the daycare attendant

Moon goes quiet and his eyes betray him and show his shock

Y/N is stunned

"It's you?"

Awkward

P2, P3

[wallop-poetry]

I don’t hate being short for the fact of being being short. I hate being short because every once in a while a tall person will tap me on the head and be like ‘Aw you’re so short’ and that makes me hate being short.

[ellismerel]

growing up short