Everyday Life Through the Eyes of a Little Person

All of my years growing up my family and I spent many summers up at Elk Lake visiting relatives and having fun. I always noticed a few cottages down that there was a family of midgets (as I called them), and I was always fascinated as to how they lived their life.

As the years went by and I had children of my own, we once again revisited the lake and one day when we arrived at my relative's cottage, it appeared that there was a get together with many people there visiting. And to my amazement this time their guests were the family of midgets. Finally after all of these years, we were all introduced and after a few conversations, I really struck up a friendship with the mom, Lauren, and I soon noticed that we had a lot in common and we have stayed in touch ever since.

Last weekend we got together once again and I asked Lauren who is just a few years older than me if she wouldn't mind answering some questions I had about midgets. She said "Sure, but I have to stop you right away, don't call me a midget, call me a little person or a LP." I apologized up and down and right away was vastly interested in finding out more about her obstacles and day to day challenges. Just by looking at the obvious physical differences between the two of us, I learned rather quickly that we really weren't so very different after all.

"Ok, so Lauren, Do you feel people out in public treat you different than everyone else because of your size?" " Yes, I know that they do, but I try to look at things from their perspective too. A lot of people stare and laugh at me and my family when we are out in public so I just put a smile on my face and not let other people bring me down."

"Why do you think they stare and laugh at you, Is it because you are smaller than them?" "I think it is more than that, for a lot of people they have never really been around a little person before, so it's a whole different experience for them. Sometimes I'll even walk up to them and ask them if they have something they want to ask me and if the do, feel free to go right ahead. They usually apologize but then follow that with a question like do you need any help or what can I get for you. I many times get treated like a child because of my size."

"You work as a Librarian right at the local High School correct?" "Yes I do, I'm 37 years old and I've been at the same Library for over fifteen years."

"Do you face any special challenges when you are at work?" "Well I tend to think of them as small hurdles, not challenges. But I do in fact face issues everyday with my height. As you can imagine a High School Library's shelves aren't all 2 feet tall! I have a special rolling ladder that helps me reach tall places and spots I couldn't normally get to. Not to mention it takes me a little longer to get to one side of the library to the next, due to my bad knees."

"You have children right? Are they all little people?" "Yes. I have two children and they are both achondroplasia dwarfs like myself and my husband Jim. Although my youngest daughter is taller than anyone in the family, we call her the Red Giant, Due to the fact that she's a red head and she towers over all of us. She hasn't taken too well to that nick name though!"

"So is your lifestyle equipped to fit your families needs, or are you constantly stepping on boxes to get things done around your house?" "Actually my husband Jim is a Carpenter and he has created a lot of things in our home to match our lifestyle. Our cabinetry is smaller throughout the house, our beds are custom made to fit us and even our stairs are shorter in stance than average steps. Our house is even small, compared to other cottages around us. At a glance, you could chuckle and joke that it looks like a tiny person lives there, when in fact they do!"

"If you could have one statement be known to the world about people your size and what life is like through your eyes, what would it be?" "The biggest point I'd like to get across would be that we are people just like you, we have the same hearts, minds and bodies too! The only difference is ours are just a little smaller proportioned than the average person. Daily, little people have to overcome obstacles to get what they want, that just makes us stronger and more determined than ever! I wouldn't trade my life and my family for anything in the world!"