Why is textarea filled with mysterious white spaces?

I have a simple text area in a form like this:

<textarea style="width:350px; height:80px;" cols="42" rows="5" name="sitelink">
    <?php if($siteLink_val) echo $siteLink_val; ?> 
</textarea>

I keep getting extra white space in this textarea. When I tab into it my cursor is like in the middle of the textarea and not in the beginning? What is the explanation?