A Stutterer’s Greatest Gift is Patience With Themselves
Someone I just met had the longest block* I’ve witnessed and I admired her immediately.
I met Lucy at my NSA Chapter Zoom Meeting. I thought she was new, but she was new to me. When it was her turn to speak, we all knew she was having a block and waited patiently for her to get through it.
However, what astounded me was the patience she had for herself. I do not know her methods. I do not know if she has gone to therapy. But, I do know that this is how she stutters. As we sat there, waiting for her, I was in awe of how she was waiting for herself.
There are countless times when I end up starting over on a sentence or end up choosing a different word because the original one won’t come out. Hell, sometimes I scrap it and just drop what I said entirely. I’m so easy to be defeated by myself. I’m impatient with myself. I do not give myself the air I need. If I can shut down my stutter, or feel less embarrassed, or just want to speed things along, then I will.
To do what Lucy does, you have to be brave. You have to have strength. You have to have courage. You have to be unapologetic with your stutter. I might not know how hard it is for her to have a severe stutter, but god I’m rooting for her. I am inspired by her.
Cutting yourself off won’t help you. Being impatient with yourself won’t help you. To allow yourself to confidently stutter? To be patient with yourself to stutter?
That’s the real win.
*block: “blocking, where the first letter or syllable becomes very difficult to pronounce and is in effect “blocked” from being spoken” — taken from K12Academics
