It never occurred to me that being out of the "norm" of the Bell curve could someday come back to bite me in the butt. However, as I'm far removed from any schooling and grading, I am now finding that being outside the Bell curve really just leads to massive inconvenience. It no longer pays to be "above-average."
Blow #1 against landing outside the Bell curve: SHOES.
Here's the deal: my dad is tall; my mom is short. As fate (and genetics) would have it, I am completely average. I measure in at exactly 5'6" tall. The average height for an American woman. The thing is, my feet didn't get this memo. My feet, in fact, just kept growing throughout my childhood. I stopped being able to play dress-up with my mom's shoes early in elementary school, and by middle school, my feet measured in at a ginormous size 10. Now, I'm not calling everyone else's size-10 feet huge, I'm just saying that for a person who is only 5'6", size-10 feet are not really in proportion.
When I got pregnant with Molly, I started to worry about the warnings of pregnancy making your feet grow. I couldn't stand the thought of my feet getting any bigger! I was sure I would even more resemble a duck. Or a water skier who had forgotten to remove her skis. So, you can imagine my relief when none of the doomsday predictions came true. I came through my pregnancy with Molly with my size-10 feet still intact. Thank god for small miracles, I thought.
