I wrote this essay for class...

In order to understand what I want my blog to be about, I need to go back over its inspirations. I've learned a lot over the past month or so, and I want to get it all down here so you all can understand too.
I entered the spring semester at UWO looking forward to my classes. I had Magazine Publishing, and I was looking forward to learning what it takes to design, edit and publish a magazine. I was also taking Feature Writing. I was excited and a little apprehensive about this class; I knew it would be a challenge, but I also knew if I worked hard I could write some great stories. The teacher was Grace Lim, a woman whom I respected, but also sort of feared. Let's just say she's intense. But I knew she would challenge me to produce good writing.
Our first assignment was to write a personal essay. I've never been to type to talk much about personal stuff, so i wrote about the jobs I have to help pay for college. I took the story to Grace and she promptly gave it the axe. She told me that if I didn't write something truly personal then no one would want to read it. She shared how she had wished she were white instead of Asian growing up, and she encouraged me to write about being tall.
So I went home and poured out all these memories from my childhood, adolescence, my entire life. I wrote the essay focusing on how I was, and still am, singled out for being a tall woman. I recalled how, during my teens, I stuck out as different when all I wanted was to fit in with the crowd.
I read a draft of the essay in class the next week, in early March. My face was red the entire time, but my voice was clear (I think). It was difficult to read it in front of my peers, and I don't think I could have done it even 3 years ago, I was still too uncomfortable about my height even then. But everyone seemed to like the essay, especially the kicker (final sentence) where I defied the shyness I had felt about being stared at: "In fact, sometimes I wear heels. Just to make them look twice."
I felt good having written it. I had accepted and embraced my height, but I had never really put the whole story into words and shared it with so many people. It reminded me to be proud of my height as well as my writing ability.