When I was young, I had some issues about my height. But in hindsight — what the heck was I thinking?
Here is the world's tallest man, at 7 feet 9 inches, who had some real issues. Because of his height, it hindered many of his dreams and possibilities. He sent out 1,000 marriage advertisements — and in the end, wedded a woman from his hometown who is half his age and two feet shorter.
He sent out 1,000 advertisements. One thousand. And he found love in his own hometown, with someone who knew him already.
Reading this story stopped me in my tracks. Here was a man dealing with a physical reality that makes ordinary life genuinely difficult — doorways, transport, finding clothes, finding a bed — and yet he persisted. He didn't stop asking. He didn't decide love wasn't for him because his circumstances were unusual.
He just kept sending letters.
There is something in that. Whatever the thing is that makes you feel too much, too little, too different — the answer isn't to stop trying. It's to send the thousand letters. One of them lands.
I spent a lot of teenage years wishing I were a couple of inches taller. I look back now and think: what a waste of perfectly good wishing.