Size is a relative thing. And like living with relatives, it can be a tricky emotional thing. In the United States, I considered myself to be medium sized. I am bigger than some women and smaller than others. Thanks to the up-sizing of Americans, I have worn the same size clothes for the better part of 20 years, all the while gaining 20+ pounds.

Now however, I live in a country of smaller people. I am taller than about half the men my age, most of the women, and am certain that I weight much more than the majority by a huge margin. (Margin is huge, not me!) Most of the time I just comfort myself by saying that the other foreigners from the US and Australia are still larger than me. Justification aside, it is an issue that I confront every time I wander into as clothing store.

I do have a favorite store that generally stocks clothing in my size. Although the label is well known in the US, all the clothes are Japanese-sized. Japanese are probably even of a more slight build than Taiwanese. So the first few times I headed into the store, nothing fit, so I went up a size, and then another. Well, I didn't get bigger this time but the size inflation is non-existent so now I wear a XL. At first this bothered me so I carefully removed all size labels from the things I bought. Now I have decided that it is Okay to be the size of an XL Japanese woman. I am relieved that Japanese women come in XL at all. Also, I have decided that maybe I'd like to return to being medium sized, only this time, a Japanese medium. It seems like a healthier size to me.