The Collegian

Issue date: 11/12/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Michael Mayday

Sophomore Kyle Jazwiecki said he has always been tall for his age.

The 6'7" basketball player said people have always thought he was older because of his height. Starting his first year of high school, he said some mistook him for a college freshman on account of his tallness. Other consequences of his stature, he added, include difficulties fitting into plane and car seats and hitting his head on the fan hanging from a 7-foot ceiling in his house.

"I don't feel tall when I'm with the basketball team, but when I go out amongst everyone else I'm like, 'Wow, I'm tall,'" Jazwiecki said.

6'5" senior Kyle Weber said he doesn't play basketball, but people constantly walk up to him and ask if he does. Another favorite passerby request, he said, is if he can get something down from a grocery store shelf.
Weber cites these as his biggest annoyances, along with having to buy pants online because most stores do not carry 36 inch inseams.

Senior Gregory Sparks, 6'4," had a lot more complaints about his height. Sparks said he has been tall all his life.

"I feel like I'm a small person stuck in a large person's body," Sparks said. "I like to dance, fit into small places, run fast and play different games that involve being able to fit in small places. When I was younger it was really hard to be able to play hide-and-go seek or make forts."

Sparks said the biggest problem was hanging out in his rough neighborhood when people would come up and pick fights with him and his friends.

"I wasn't necessarily involved, but my friends would have me around, and I have actually had guns pointed to my face because I was the biggest person and they wouldn't want to fight me," he said.

Sparks said he has also had problems with girls not wanting to date him because they thought he was too tall.

"Tall people are people too," he said. "We like to do the same things you guys like to do."

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