I have always been a “tall girl”  I hit 5’10 in high school, towering above the boys who were still deep in puberty. Tall, and (when I was a teen) skinny. Even now, with a new love of hard cider, my tall frame is kind to my weight.

And despite my slim hips, I was consistently called BIG.

Now, they might have meant “big up and down” and not “big around”, but to my ears, I heard “big everywhere”

Luckily, it never left any lasting damage and I will still wander about in a bikini, despite the extra couple I am carrying around with me.  I have pretty good self esteem and accept my body and all it’s normallness.

But I am hypersensitive to the word BIG, and if I hear it, my hairs stand on end and I throw my shoulders back ready for confrontation.

And it is exactly the same as I feel about the word LUCKY.

“Big” and “Lucky” go side by side in my book. Both are insulting, without meaning to be.

Lucky is frequently thrown in my direction.
“Oh, you are so lucky to have the life you have”

“What a great job/guy/kid,  how did you get so lucky?”

“You were lucky to get that opportunity”

Luck didn’t come into play for any of these things. All of these “great” things happened through hard work, creativity and (with the hubby especially) a whole lot of effort and training.

And much like when people say I am “big”, they don’t mean it in a bad way.  I know they aren’t just saying that everything that is around me “happened to be” because of some whimsical force tossing it my direction.

At least, I am pretty sure they don’t think that.

I am sure they understand the hard work that goes into any job, or the risks we have taken to go after what we want.  The courage it took to leap, and the fear we had to overcome by constantly challenging ourselves.

Luck is for the lotto winner who picked the winning ticket off the dirty sidewalk.  Luck is the car narrowly missed at the intersection.

In my life, everything has happened because I kept my ears open, and continued to chase my dreams every single day.

Things happened, because I tried. Again, and again, and again.

And then a few more times.

And for each time I have had success, there are 10 failures sitting in the background.

So, the next time the word “big” wants to leave your lips, think twice. And ditto for the word “lucky”
Consider how it sounds to the person you are saying it to.