As soon as the Delta flight attendant noticed my predicament, she came over bearing sympathy and a promise.

I’d just scrunched my 6-foot-8 frame into the narrow middle seat and was trying to get mentally prepared for the upcoming 13-hour flight from Los Angeles to Shanghai, China.

It’s a crazy-long trip regardless, but the idea of spending it contorted between two strangers – with little to no room to stretch out – seemed particularly cruel no matter how many Netflix downloads I’d be able to watch.

I’d arrived in LA that mid-May morning after a four-hour flight from Chicago to catch up with fellow members of the USA Collegiate National Team. We were headed to China for a five-match, 10-day volleyball tour that would take us to Shanghai, Jiashan, Pinghu City and Beijing.

I was pumped for my first visit to Asia, for making new friends, for representing my country and the Wisconsin volleyball program, but there was nothing at all appealing about squeezing into a middle seat for the longest flight of my life.

Before I got completely settled, though, one of the flight attendants came over and vowed that if there was an aisle seat available after everyone was on board, she’d move me.

I can’t begin to say how thankful I was that she found one.

In my world, you can never have enough leg room.

. . .

I’m not your typical 19-year-old woman.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the average height for women in the United States is 5-4.

That was me in the fourth grade.

I was 6-1 in the seventh grade and measured 6-4 when I enrolled at Riverside-Brookfield (Illinois) High School.

By the time I was a sophomore, I was 6-7.

In my world, you can never have enough leg room

By the time I came to Madison to be a middle blocker for the Badgers in January of 2017, I was 6-8, making me one of the tallest volleyball players in Division I.

I have company. Rachael Kramer of Florida and Merete Lutz, formerly of Stanford, are also 6-8 in a sport where most players are between 5-10 and 6-2.

For all its labels and challenges, I love being tall and with every passing day I become more aware of what a blessing it is and how fortunate I am.

Looking back, I grew up in a special, wonderful, accepting environment.

I wasn’t bullied as a kid, online or otherwise.

I wasn’t teased nor was I singled out for being different even though I literally stand out in a crowd.

I think there are some good reasons for that.

My parents, John and Kathy, never made an issue of my height. They never sat me down and said, “Look, you’re different.’’ They never sat me down and had one of those kids-can-be-mean talks. They never had me stand with my back to a door frame and measure my growth with a pen mark.