I’m 31 and stutter, at this age the reality of the situation is the stutter will more than likely never go away. I’ve kind of just embraced that. I’m not sad about it either. I really just try not to care at this point. I was in the gym the other day and forgot my keycard to scan going in. I looked at the girl behind the counter and attempted to tell her my name. I’m not kidding I bet it took me 10 seconds to get my name out. This girl though was so patient and understanding..I really appreciated that. Next day comes. I’m in the gym parking lot again…once again I realize I forget my keycard. This time I thought about just leaving. Leaving all together sounded better than standing there embarrassing myself again trying to say my name. These past few years though I have made a goal to not let my stutter stop me from doing things. So I said “fuck it I’m going in.” Got to the counter. Same girl. Said my name. I did stutter but it was minor this time. Afterwards I looked at this girl and said jokingly “well thank god that was easier than yesterday and took less than an hour this time” and we both just laughed it off. At this point in my life I have had speech therapists in public school that did not help at all. My parents took me to outside speech therapists that didn’t help. They even took me all the way to Michigan to buy this device that looked like a hearing aid that helped with stuttering supposedly, it didn’t. I eventually want to go back to school and be a speech therapist as insane as that sounds and I want to work in schools. I currently work in a steel mill, it’s not my calling. One thing I wish was when I was a kid people worked on my confidence with me and helped me live with my stutter just as much as they tried to cure my stutter. Sorry for the ridiculous long post. You’re right though, you have to embrace it. Chances are you and I are both going to live with it until we are gone from this earth. Don’t let it stop you from doing things you want to do. Do things that scare you. Step out of your comfort zone with your speech. We can do hard things and you are stronger than you think. It’s actually a very “freeing” feeling and I find myself stuttering much less when I stop being so over critical of myself.