Royalty

Once I was with my mother speaking to one of our neighbors.

She peered at me like I was an animal.

As if I weren't there she asked my mother, pointing:

"But where does she get her shrinkiness from?"

"You and your husband are normal sized...why is she small?"

She looked disgusted.

I wanted to deck her.

There's nothing wrong with being small.

Being called a shrink wasn't flattering.

A few months ago it happened again.

I was invited to sit by a group of women in a coffee shop..

And one of them said.

"God, you have nothing to you, you're quite a shrink!"

Another woman piped up.

"Yes, but so was Queen Victoria, and they say she was only 4'11!"

Queen Victoria is one of my favorites.

Even though she was tiny, she was such a firecracker.

She also ruled for an exceptionally long time.

I sat back and had to smile.

This wasn't the first time Royalty helped stand up for me.

Back in high school, kids in my class made fun of my name.

Kathryn was an "old lady name."

They wanted me to change my name to Katie to be "cooler."

Thankfully my teacher Ms. Carey came to my defense.

Her eyes began to sparkle. She told the class that in the next week an ordinary girl named Catherine Middleton would marry Prince William.

Everyone paused and that was that.

The name Kathryn became cool.

At the end of the day, I am proud to say I have royalty in myself.

My grandmother was a genealogist.

She was able to trace back hundreds of years.

She discovered that one of the Kings of England had a mistress.

Together they had a illegitimate daughter.

And the baby girl they had was my relative.

The next time someone calls me a shrink..

I think I'll just smile and walk on.

The history that courses through my veins isn't your average history.

Author's Note