Where Does The Stuttering Journey
Begin And Where Does It End? More than 70 million people worldwide stutter, and yet I still felt alone. I didn't become acquainted with other people who stutter until I attended the Stuttering Foundation's annual conference in spring of 2014. I didn't think having friends who stuttered was even an option until my mid-twenties when I attended my first stuttering conference in July 2018 filled with hundreds of attendees who stutter. At that conference, I heard people from all ages and backgrounds talk about their stutter and their experiences. I listened to their stories and those were some of the most important moment of my life. Stuttering is a personal journey that looks different to everyone.
Can I Accept My Stutter?
I've held onto many negative thoughts about stuttering. As I learn more about myself and stuttering, I choose what to hold onto and what to release. The person I was when I first started stuttering as a child isn't the same person who I am now. I never would have reached out to the stuttering community when I was in middle school. I never would have talked to my friends about this aspect of myself which I have kept hidden for most of my life. I never would have openly talked about my stutter to anyone. And then, once I opened myself up to words on the page and to the people around me, I opened up as a person in every aspect of my life. Stuttering is often described as an iceberg. The top of the iceberg is what people actually hear and submerged beneath the surface are all of the emotional aspects of having a stutter. I'm still coming to terms with the inner depths of my stutter but I know that it's still a work in progress. Stuttering is, after all, a lifelong conversation.
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