"Being a Little Bit Different"

"Being a Little Bit Different"

By: Liz Welborn

Tick. Tock.

"What is a natural domain sometimes called?" Dr. Kimberly Titus asks the 29 students nodding off in her finite math class.

The students, whom the question is aimed towards, stare straight ahead with heavy-lidded eyes that are watching the clock that sits tauntingly hoisted above the white boards in the front. Each tick of the clock's hands is one second closer to the end of class.

Titus stands firm, not relenting until she gets an answer…from someone…anyone to show that these students are still alive.

This is a normal event in the 9 a.m. class that meets three days a week. When Titus unexpectedly asks a question, the students know they better answer or they will not get out on time. When this occurs, one of the students sacrifices themselves for the group.

Today, Brittany Bradfute steps up to the plate.

"It is sometimes called the largest domain," correctly answers the bored, drowsy face sitting in the front of the fluorescent lit room in Congdon.

Her shoulder length mahogany colored hair is tousled as she balances her head on the palm of her right hand. Her glasses give evil glints of light in the professor's direction.

From the looks of it, Brittany is just like everyone else in the class-bored, falling asleep and hating math. She is not different until she stands up.

With the slowing sweep of its hand, the clock caresses upon 9:50 a.m. Brittany jumps gracefully from her perched seat and bends down to grab her rainbow-colored foot stool she uses so her feet will not dangle from the chair.

She walks with a tilted gait out of the classroom. She does not notice people's glances in the hallway anymore. She just smiles; this is who she is. She is different.

There are two main things that make Brittany so exceptionally different from her peers that they will take extra care to appear as if they are not staring at her.

First, Brittany is a little person.

She has a rare form of dwarfism called hypochondroplasia that only affects a little over 200 people worldwide. In this form of dwarfism, the person's torso is the normal size, but their arms and legs are short, giving them a disproportioned body (see sidebar for more information).

Secondly, she is one of the only two little people on the High Point University campus during the 2009-2010 school year. This is an unprecedented number since, according to Irene Ingersoll HPU's coordinator of Disability Support, "we had zero little people last year, but in 2007 we had one."

HPU is not used to her. People make fools out of themselves, choosing to turn their heads to vacant walls when she walks by in fear that she might catch them staring.

She is the definition of different. "I like being different; I make a more lasting impression that way. People won't forget that little person," she says as she walks along the promenade with stool in hand.

First Discovery

From her first intake of air, Brittany's average sized parents had a strange suspicion that there was something wrong with their daughter. Her extremities were already too short for her infant body.

With the happiness of the day, their suspicions were quickly brushed aside. She was a healthy baby; the doctors had said.

Brittany did not get labeled different until she was in the 3rd grade. Brittany, her mom and dad, had dragged their feet into the chilly all white doctor's office, knowing that there was something wrong but unsure if they wanted to know what it was.

The doctor had started out joking to Brittany giving her right ear a little tug. When suddenly as his face was growing instantly flat like an old coke, he explained what was wrong. How Brittany was different. Her uniqueness came in the form of a growth deficiency. She would not get much taller.

Her parents were in total shock; her mom's hand was shaking as it lifted to cover her mouth.

"My mom freaked at first; she asked the doctor if I could ever play sports," Brittany said with a smile touching her lips almost like remembering a good memory instead of a tragic one. The doctor had to reassure her mother that Brittany could definitely play sports. Nothing was hindering her from being normal.

Brittany proudly points out, "I am actually taller than most little people." Her 4 feet 8 inch stature makes her only a little bit shorter than the 4 feet 10 inches that it takes to be called a little person.

"There go your chances of being in the WMBA, Britt," her mom would start to joke.

If Brittany's parents ever were disappointed in having a disabled child, they never showed that to Brittany. Her parents decided to never let Brittany feel sorry for her predicament. She was different but the same as everyone else. Her parents taught her how to be okay with her disability by not treating her like she had one at all. Her 10 years older average height sister, would go out to climb trees; Brittany would happily follow climbing the trees with full abandon. She never thought anything about being shorter or letting it get in the way of what she wanted to do.

Because of this mentality, Brittany today is someone that can only remember a couple of times when she regretted being little. "I mean there are times when I wished that I could be a couple inches taller so that I could reach something on the top shelf at the grocery store," she says with an exaggerated laugh.

She laughs off what others would cry over.

Going Purple

In school, Brittany would gravitate towards people with the same label of being different that she had upon her own back. Her two best friends were autistic. All three would band together and learn from one another. "I think because I was disabled myself I knew what it felt like," Brittany comments with a twinkle of reminiscing in her eyes.

She would watch them struggle with concepts in class that would come easier to her. They would watch her struggle to get upon her normal-height bed in her room. She became aware of how to interact with people who had learning disabilities through their relationship.

So when it came time to decide what to do with her life, majoring in Special Education was a no brainer, neither was going to HPU.

"I wanted something close to my home in South Carolina, and High Point is known for their special education program."

When she applied to HPU, she did not mark that she was disabled. She did not think of it. This started her college life to a shaky beginning. Coincidentally when she arrived on campus in August, she was assigned to a room in Wesley with an unusually tall bed.

Every night Brittany would have to jump onto her swivel black chair then jump onto her chestnut colored dresser to finally land on her bed.

Brittany finally had to move all of her stuff in early October to Blessing Hall. "It is so nice to be able to fall into bed instead of climbing!" She says with a smirk in her voice.

This could have all been avoided if Brittany had just informed HPU. "Once they [students] have been accepted, they must contact the office of Disability Services in order to receive appropriate accommodations for their disability," Ingersoll states.

If Brittany had informed the school, she would have been placed in a room that would accommodate her needs. However, Brittany is not the type to think of her disability. She does not wake up in the morning, thinking she is disabled.

In fact, some HPU students think more about her disability than she does. Like the scene on the first hot day of class, she felt the glances that looked her up and down as she made her way to class along the promenade.

Many HPU students were introduced to Brittany without even meeting her due to the rumors around campus.

"I hadn't even set my stuff down on move in day when my roommate came running in telling me that we had little people on campus," remembers senior Jen Paolino.

Brittany was an overnight spectacle.

For 18 years she has had to put up with the stares so she is used to it by now. She just wishes people would actually ask her why she is so little instead of gawking at her.

"I would be happy to explain to them. Actually, that is kind of controversial among people like me.” Some little people like her would feel offended to be directly called out for being different.

Brittany steps up to that plate.

Aside for a few wobbly first instances, college life has proven to be a light in Brittany's life. She has proven to HPU students that she is more than just a disability. She courageously had shown up to the HPU intramural swim team practice with the firm intention of being on the team.

In the salty, steamy room she walked past the gawkers knowing that the other team members were hesitant about her being there. "I know I am small, and I am not as fast as the others. But I like to swim," Brittany relates with a not-so-casual shrug of her shoulders.

She swims on the team, and although her short arms are her disadvantage, she feels victory in the camaraderie that she has by being a part of the team. When she is swimming, her strokes are much shorter than her competitor; the competitor seems to rip through the pool leaving Brittany in a puddle of huge droplets of water as she bypasses her.

However, she finishes knowing that she was not afraid to compete with the students that were always labeled as normal.

Life Being Little

Sometimes her differences are even hard for her to ignore. During the long school days, Brittany's feet never reach the floor while she is sitting in each hard cold seat of her classes. By the end of the day, her back would be killing her. So, Brittany's father handcrafted a wooden box to take with her to place her feet upon during class so that her feet would not dangle.Her friends had painted the box bringing it to life with colors and decoration the word "Brittany" is now scrawled along the wooden top.

Brittany has taught those around her what having a disability is like. Brittany is so open with her disability that she is willing to answer any question given to her. When people do get the courage to ask rather than to just stare, the most popular question they ask is what are people supposed to call little people?

"Little people is the preferred term; do not in any way use the term midget to any little person. It just has a bad connotation to it," Brittany says with anger edging her voice.

Even though she is so different that people have to ask what to call her, she is just like the average college student trying to figure out what they want to do in life. Students can see Brittany cruising around campus in her '99 tan Honda Accord.

With closer inspection, the only thing that would be out of the ordinary in her driving is that her steering wheel is closer to her body than normal.

She watches movies, eats out, and shops in the same stores that all college kids frequent. The sleeves on her T-shirts do reach past her arms; they dangle as she gestures with her hands. She also has to cut a couple inches off any pants that she buys.

Even though she is open about her disability, Brittany does have a few complaints of how people perceive her.

Her biggest pet peeve is people making it seem as if she is unable to do things for herself. She will be reaching for an item at the grocery store when a kind bystander will help her get the item off the shelf. "This frustrates me because I could've reached that myself,” Brittany retorts angrily.

Her college friends state that she is just like anyone else that they have encountered on campus. They take on the same humorous attitude toward her disability that she does. "Well, she has trouble getting on bikes; we kid about this a lot," says Rajeedah Lisenby one of her closest college friends.

She surrounds herself with laughter, and openness. Brittany seems to turn every negative into a positive even when it comes to her future.

"I'm going to teach 3rd grade or below. I wanna be taller than them," Brittany says with joy as she goes to class with glances bouncing off her back.

Sidebar:

Related Resources:

• Little People of America
• General Information About Dwarfism