#stutter awareness

[healinghottea]

Where Are All Of My Stutterers?

How Are Y’all Feeling Today? Taking On The World I Bet!

Remember Your Voice Matters Too.

[indilwenlily]

I don’t always play the stutter card, but tonight, one of the guys I play ultimate with took a failed pass and said I need to communicate and tell someone when I’m throwing to them (which is total bs, considering said person called for it), and then ran off as I was explaining that my stutter can make that difficult...

[indilwenlily]

Ok so time for a little bit of a personal post. I work retail. I love my job. But I also have a stutter, so as you can imagine, retail can be sometimes difficult. However, the people I work with and the customers at my store are all normally very understanding about it, and people rarely give me issues. Until last night.

This girl came in with her friend and when they came up to cash out, I began to ask if they had a rewards card. I usually block while asking this question, and sure enough, my throat closed and my brain absolutely refused to ask the question. The girl I was checking out immediately began mocking me and laughing as I tried to get through the block. Right after she did it, she must of noticed my stuttering awareness pin on my lanyard that says “I Stutter,” and she immediately get so serious and said “Oh my God I am so sorry. I don’t know why I made fun of you, I’m so sorry!!”

Now, this is not my first rodeo. This is not the first, nor will it be the last time that someone has decided to make a joke of the situation. But honestly a this point, I can’t even say that I’m mad. Who knows if she really did feel bad or not. She sure seemed to, but it begs the question of “Why make fun of a total stranger in the first place?” It’s strange to think that a couple of years ago, this scenario would have sent me even further over the edge. Like, drowning in the ocean of self pity and sorrow because “Dear God why can’t I just be normal and talk like everyone else???” But I think this served as a serious learning point for me that people say stupid things because they don’t know. I don’t care if people have a problem with my stutter. I think it’s cool, and it makes me who I am. If someone has a problem with it, they can say so, and I will probably just give them a blank stare and ask “why?” and then go on with my day.

Moral of the story? Don’t let people get you down. It gets better. Your biggest insecurity one day may turn into your biggest strength.

And if the girl from yesterday just so happens to be reading this? I’m not even mad. Just don’t make fun of people before you know the whole story.

[vegetabledumpling]

i just learned that Bruce Willis had a bad stutter when he was younger. his attitude about it is really comforting.