"Keep staring, I might do a trick" That's the message on a T-shirt of mine. People stare at me all the time so I thought this shirt would be funny. See, I'm a dwarf.
dwarf n. 矮子、侏儒
Most of the time people aren't trying to be rude—they just haven't seen many dwarfs like me before. I can understand that. But I also want to let them know that I see them staring. Usually the T-shirt makes them laugh at themselves not at me.
I was born with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. I have an average size torso but my arms and legs are shorter and my head is bigger than average.
achondroplasia n. 軟骨發育不全dwarfism n. 矮小、侏儒症
torso n. 人體的軀幹
Right now I'm almost four feet tall and that's about as tall as I'm going to get. I'm not going to pretend that my HeiGHT isn't a challenge. It is. Light switches and counters are usually too high for me. I can't reach some shelves in the grocery stores. It takes me three steps to keep up with one step of an average size adult. And my mom has to hem almost all of my pants.
switch n. 開關、電閘grocery n. 雜貨、食品hem v. 縫…的褶邊
But everyone faces challenges. You just have to face them with a good attitude. So I have a long barbecue fork to pull things down from pantry shelves. I'm a great climber and I can make a stool out of just about anything. I'll even be able to drive a car with the help of pedal extensions. If all else fails I ask for help.
barbecue n. 吃燒烤肉的野餐pantry n. 食品室、餐具室 pedal n. 踏板
The way I see it I can do just about anything that an average size person can do. OK, so I'll never play professional sports but I have no problem testing my limits. I have to. For instance, everyone uses stoves. Little people just have to figure out how to use them in different ways. I use a stool to reach mine at home. It may take me longer and it may be harder but I can still do it. (to be continued)
中文：
“瞧著吧，我會有我的高招！” 這就是我的一件T恤衫上面寫的東西。因為人們總愛盯著我瞧，所以我想這件T恤衫會讓他們感覺很有意思。猜到了吧，我是一個小矮人。
大多數時候人們都不是有意表現出無禮——他們只不過以前很少看到過像我這樣的矮人而已。我能理解這點，但仍想讓他們知道我注意到他們在盯著我看。這件T恤就常常使他們自嘲起來，而不是笑話我。
我生來就患有軟骨發育不全症，這是侏儒症最常見的一種。我的軀幹大小和常人一樣，但胳膊和腿都比常人短，腦袋也比常人大一些。
現在我差不多有四英尺高，但基本上不可能再高了。事實就是如此，我不能裝作無視身高這個挑戰。對我來說燈的開關和櫃檯常常太高了；在雜貨店裡有些貨架我夠不著；我要走上三步才能趕得上普通成人邁一步。媽媽不得不為我把幾乎所有的褲子都縫上折邊。
但每個人都會遇到挑戰，我們必須用良好的心態去面對它們。所以我會用一個很長的烤肉叉把東西從食品室的架子上弄下來；我擅長攀爬，任何東西都能被我當作凳子來用。藉助踏板延伸設施，我甚至還能開車。要是所有其他的努力都不管用，那我就會請求幫助了。
正是這種態度，使得普通人能做的我也一樣能做到。是的，我將永遠無法參加職業運動項目，但我總有辦法測試我的極限——我不得不如此。例如人人都用爐子，我們小矮人就必須想出怎樣用不同的方法來使用爐子（在家裡我站在凳子上才能夠到煤）。這可能會讓我花更長的時間，做起來也更困難，但我總算能做到。（待續）