Powell High School is facing a change of wind this year. A large student body, new teachers and new projects. For me as a senior – a small senior at that – I’ve noticed a size difference in the students.

I thought it was just me: maybe my body had decided it was time to take the leap and grow a couple inches. I was ecstatic, over the moon with the idea that I might have just gotten a little taller. Gone were the days of being called a midget and people using me as an armrest. No more getting asked, “Would you like a kids’ menu?” any time I went to any restaurant in Billings. No more buying kids’ jeans because my legs weren’t long enough for adult sizes and no more getting lost in the sea of students in the hallway because I couldn’t see over anybody.  

But that was just not to be.

I failed to remember that upon receiving my sports physical, my nurse had not agreed to fudge my height an inch or two when I had pleaded with her. I hadn’t grown since the sixth grade, and I just wanted to see those numbers move. My dreams of playing professional basketball dashed to smithereens. I would forever struggle to get into trucks and I’d never reach the top shelf without risking my life by jumping onto the counter. 

Turns out everyone else is just getting smaller. It’s as if Powell High School is ushering in a new era of baby faced midget kids that don’t look a day over 12. I was just one of the last survivors of a dying race of normal high school kids. Hoorah.

In a typical Lauren move, I waited until my last year of high school to take health (a usual freshman class if you didn’t know). I have spent the last week carefully observing my classmates and they all look like the little kids I used to have in my swim lesson classes; small and scared. Babies.

I’ve been looking back at past graduation classes and WOW. Just wow. Class upon class of high school boys that could pass as grown men. They could be drafted at the crisp age of 14 and nobody would even question it. Now? I’d send them back to middle school. After the class of 2017 graduated everything’s gone downhill. Just look at the pictures.

Maybe it’s a passing phase. Maybe Powell High School will be restored to its days of glory with the return of tall boys. Then we’d have a real chance at winning state football. But for now, I’ll enjoy my last year of high school looking over the heads of the general population.