The defining moment of my adult life was breaking down after running out of a college class before I had to speak, crying for about an hour in my car and having the epiphany that nothing is wrong if my heart is beating. Embarrassed, scared, hurt, etc? Well I'm not dead, so keep on trucking. It didn't make me suddenly able to give speeches the next day, but it marked a change in my mentality that over the next several years led me to fully accept and move past my stutter. I still stutter just as much, but it is only an inconvenience and not something that weighs on my mind anymore.