“ah I’m so fat. I want to be thin like you, Dinda.”
“ooh, I envy you, Dinda, you’re so thin. You eat anything and everything and yet you still stay thin.”
Those were a few remarks I hear every now and then. Almost all of my friends want a body like mine. Geez, I sound cocky hahaha But it’s true. I get that all the time and frankly, I’m getting bored of it. To be honest, I am thankful to have a body that doesn’t bloat easily and I’m free to eat as much and as often as I want. I guess it runs in the family, my mum’s family to be exact. They are all slim figured and eat big portions of meals day and night, and still have their figures intact.
I do realize it is every girls dream to have a slim body, and I happen to be those girls’ dream body. But let me tell you a thing or two, it isn’t always fun to have a body like mine. Ever since elementary school, I’ve been incredibly thin! Not only was I thin, I was tiny. Yes, tiny as in short like a midget. I remember when I was in the 1st grade, our teacher had us fill a form which required us to include our weight. I wrote 22 kgs, when in fact I actually weighed 20 kgs! That’s around 40 lbs, if you’re wondering. Yup, I was that small. My teacher used to call me “tiny Dinda” throughout my study. Blah. But that wasn’t the only nickname I had, I had tons of ‘em! I forgot to tell you, I lived in Kenya, Africa at the age of six to ten years old and went to a British International School, St. Austin’s Academy. And as you can tell, kids from literally around the world enrolled to this school, and when I say around the world, I mean kids with western genes that are unbelievably bigger and taller than an Asians. I happen to be the super short, tiny, midget Asian! So back to the nickname thing, as diverse the school was, kids will always be kids, there’s no escaping their foul mouths. Hehehe Now don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t bullied or anything, I just happen to be an easy target of harmless insult. Here are the list of my nicknames during my stay in Kenya and when I got back to Indonesia:
- Miss skin and bones
This I vividly remember who, when and where I got the name. A fellow Indonesian named Joshua, on the Indonesian Independence Day celebration at the Indonesian Embassy.
“I know what to call you, Miss Skin and Bones! Because you don’t have any meat under your skin. Hahaha”
- KuLang DaRat – Kurus, Langsing, Dada rata (thin, slim, flat breast)
It’s actually supposed to be KuTiLang DaRat – kurus, tinggi, langsing, dada rata (tinggi = tall), but I was awfully short back then, so they left out the “Tinggi”.
- Tengkorak (Skeleton)
The word explains it all.
- Papan Seterikaan (Iron Board)
An iron board is flat and the iron board is me. Enough said
- Jelangkung
This was by far the worst nickname for me. Go google this word yourself, I don’t wanna talk about this. I got this nickname when I came back from Kenya and my Indonesian language was still poor in vocabularies. I didn’t know what this word meant and I was so gullible enough for them to make me imitate the “jelangkung” moves. I found out what the word meant months later! Thanks a bunch fellas. Stupid me. Hahaha
Those were my “thin” nicknames, I got a whole lot more but they don’t have anything to do with my stick thin figure, so I’d rather not tell you. Hehehe One of my extra culicullars was Balet. I was indeed a Balerina and when I performed with my fellow Balerinas on our weekly assembly, a classmate of mine came up with a new nickname for me and blurted it out in the middle of my recital. The word was, BRANCH! Aaargh….
As I grew older, my body remained like an adolescent that never hit puberty, till now. And up till this very day, I don’t know if I should say this is a blessing or a curse. Hahaha When I was between 11 and 15 years old, I had difficulty in finding clothes that fit me. You know, those are the years where you wish to leave your kiddy clothes behind and want to start dressing like a teenage girl. Hoo boy, did I go through hell. My body was a body of an adolescent but I wanted to wear preteen clothes that didn’t carry size XS. Yes, XS was my size! Hahaha There was no way I was going to wear t-shirts that had Daisy Duck or Minnie Mouse on it. Hell no! My uniforms had to through the tailor’s magic hands before I could wear them. The same goes to my Jeans, guess my size, give up? It was size 25! Hahaha Every time mum and I went to shop for Jeans, the shopkeeper will always say “25?? Oh my God, that’s too small.” With a puzzled and at the same time amazed look while staring at my waist. And I’d be lucky enough if they had the size. Most of them would say “Sorry, but our smallest size is 27.” Great. I once bought a size 27 Levi’s and had to be tailored to hang perfect on my waist. Sad. hehehe
I was so insecure and embarrassed with my skeletal figure that I’d always wear loose, long sleeved t-shirts. I even hear comments from strangers who happen to stand behind me about my size. I was on the escalator and a young couple stood right behind me. The guy said to his girlfriend “now this is the size you should be.” His girlfriend quickly responded with an irritated and somewhat disgusted tone “what, are you crazy? This kind of figure looks like an ill person. No way!” That remark just stabbed me right to the heart… I’d also pass snobby, cynical high school girls and they’d say pointing and looking at me “oh my God, she’s so anorexic!” complete with disgusted intonation and evil laughs. Urgh, I hated them. Friends would accuse me anorexic, bulimic and other out of this world eating disorders. I’ll state this loud and clear, I AM NOT ANOREXIC NOR BULIMIC! I eat perfectly normal. I don’t have any kind of eating disorder. Now I’m pissed. hahahaha
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dindanancy
