How to grow height? A Story bout Growing Up, Getting Bullied & Failure

How to grow height?

That one of the first few sentences I typed into Yahoo when I had access to the internet back when I was just 13 years old (other than sex of course).

When I was 13, not only I was scrawny, I was short. I hated that. I wanted to find a way to grow taller. Back then, I felt it I was taller, my life would be different. That was all I ever wanted.

You see, back when I was six years old. I hated school. One day during recess, after buying and opening a packet of snacks, a group of older kids who were 11 and 12 years old came up to me. They looked at me and said ‘him.’

Before I couldn’t blink, someone caught me from behind, and another kid opened the lid of the garbage bin. Just before I could struggle myself free, the person who grabbed me lifted me and threw me into the bin. After that, the kids and everyone who witness the incident laughed and they walked away. I climbed back out of the garbage bin with a confused look, not knowing what just happened.

That was one of my early cases of getting bullied growing up.

Back then, I didn’t even know what bully was. I just accepted it and thought it was normal. Since that incident, every day these bunch of kids would pick on smaller kids like me. When I saw them coming, I just hid.

I saw kid after kid getting picked on, and I knew I couldn’t do anything to change it. I even saw a close friend of mine threw into the garbage bin. He climbed back out crying.

No one did anything. They just accepted it. I told my dad about the incident but he never really did or said anything to me. So, I just accepted the fact that the big kids would always pick on the smaller kids.

That’s how the world worked for me growing up. Since I was short, I would often get picked on, in school, sports or even during holidays. I would get pushed around and get laughed at every time.

One time, when I was in one of those little spaceships at the amusement parks, a bunch of kids saw me inside the ride, they quickly circled my ship and started banging on the spaceship and laughed as I panicked and tried to get out of it. I told my dad about it; he said they were just playing with me.

If I could grow bigger…. if I could be taller… maybe kids won’t pick on me as much.

Once I nearly drowned because my brothers jumped into the pool and were able to stand soon after. Thinking the pool was shallow, I jumped soon after. I realized I couldn’t stand and nearly drowned before my brother saved me. I took up swimming the same year.

So when I heard of AltaVista and Yahoo, I was excited. I did my search on ‘how to grow height, how to increase my height.’ (Fun fact, this was when Geocities was a thing back then)

Through my search on how to grow height, I found many such as:

• doing daily stretches
• doing jump ropes
• hanging myself upside down

I did all of those every day for more than six months. I’ll start each day by stretching myself to the fullest as if someone was pulling my hands and feet. I would measure my height when I brushed my teeth to see if made any progress.

So, did I grew taller? Nope! I never became taller, not one bit.

After so many failed attempts and disappointments, I gave up.

I ended up putting my effort into sports instead. Since I swam, I decided to take it more seriously and played water polo. The reason so was because I wanted to train myself and not be scrawny anymore since I couldn’t grow taller.

Since I was short, I trained twice as hard as those who were taller than me. I even secretly trained at home with a pair of dumbbells because I knew I needed to have an advantage. Even though I wasn’t the ‘best’. I was close to it. Playing sports allowed me to be the better version of who I am. I was stronger, and I was faster. I even won bronze for 400 meters when I was 14 despite being the shortest in the field.

Bullies would think twice about bullying me. I even picked up karate, although I forgot about most of it by now.

On my search to grow taller, I stumbled upon supplements that promise to help me grow taller a few years later. They even had those testimonials of short guys using it to grow 1-2 inches taller. I considered getting it. Thank god I was only 15 back, and I didn’t own a credit card.

That was probably the last time I’ve searched for a solution and tried something to grow taller. The reason I wrote this post was I was searching for keywords to get inspired for an upcoming blog post.

When searching for keywords, I was led to this. So, I decided to do a quick search on how to grow height for fun and see what turned up. What I saw were stupid remedies which give away false hope to people like me.

• Eat this, eat that.
• Drink this, drink that
• Buy this supplement

Seriously, most of them were old wives’ tale. If you don’t know 60 to 80 percent of height between individuals is determined by genetics.

I’m not going to lie; I was annoyed, and it reminded me of the story I got bullied in school because I was smaller than other kids. I’m also annoyed because these tips are lying and giving away false hope to short guys and girls like me who think these tips would help.

So how to grow taller for real?

There’s only ONE way you can only get taller; that is through surgery, called limb-lengthening procedure.

The process involves your legs getting broken. Your legs will them be implanted with a state-of-the-art telescopic rod in the middle of the broken bone. They will then pull the bone apart very slowly, about one millimeter a day. New bone will grow around it and tissues such as muscle, nerves, arteries, skin will slowly regenerate as well. Oh did I mention this is a painful procedure and can take up to six months before you can walk properly again? Oh! The surgery can cost up to $100,000.

Ouch! If that’s what you’re planning to do, I would love to hear from you and possibly feature you on my blog. I’m not opposed to hearing other views and experiences.

For me, I opted for a different approached.

I accepted who I was. I accepted the fact that I am just short of height. I also believed I was given the will of THREE men! (random number).

The shorter height made me more competitive and had made me who I am today. I’m always pushing myself to be different and finding ways to be different since I was already different.

That is why when my friends opted for part-time jobs when we had a semester break, I searched and read books on how I could take advantage of the internet to grow a personal brand instead.

14 Years Later:

So, 14 years have passed since my I keyed in the word how to grow height in Yahoo. Here am I writing this. I’m about to turn 28 next month.

Guess what? I’m still short. Just about 5’4″.

Do I wish I was taller? Some days, I do. I do imagine what my life would be if I were. Then reality sets in, and I just move on.

Other times, I just accept who I was. I love who I am.

Being short and being different in other people’s eyes has allowed me to be who I am today. I feel like I need to work harder than taller people. I do twice the work of others, and I just move faster.

Today, I’ve worked for some of the most amazing companies and startups. I’ve been featured in many publications for my work such as:

• Forbes
• Entrepreneur
• Success
• Huffington Post
• & Much more.

Not bad for someone who’s just 5’4. You see, height is just a number. It doesn’t change who you are inside.

It’s your will and determination that sets you apart from others. You can do GREAT things. You can do BIG things in your life if you focus on that instead of just your height.

The best way to increase height or grow taller is to accept your height. While you can’t grow taller, you can grow wiser, smarter, stronger, faster, better & much more.