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I GAVE A SPEECH! My story. Today I finally did it! I public spoke for the first time in a long while-5-6 years. I used to be a good speaker in my middle school. I had a little stutter back them but it was very controllable. Since then, my stutter kept getting worse and my life spiraled downward with it. Last year has been the worst and I hit rock bottom. I went to a new school for my A levels (Last 2 years of high school); I thought that the new challenge would help me overcome my problem, instead, it absolutely did the opposite. A few months before coming to my new school, I had a major ligament injury, and I was robbed of one of my most valuable assets: Playing football. Football would help me bridge the barrier between my speech and myself. Coming to this new school, I had no friends with me, nothing else I was good at. My confidence took a major hit. I was a good student, but I couldn’t ask my questions in class. I tried to, but alas, in vain. Sometimes I would get stuck on a word, sometimes my voice would just disappear. I became very insecure, developed an inferiority complex and completely shut myself out from the world for a few months. I would sleep late at night, come for my classes only, had no social life as I had completely given up on it, I would leave as soon as the class ended and then slept the rest of the daylight. Walking through the corridors of the school, I used to think that everyone laughed at me, that I was the topic of their laughs. I never had the courage to look up to them, or to walk upright. I was in a state of crippling depression. My dream college is Harvard, and I love physics, but my dreams were all shattering with each passing day. It’s been a year now, and I didn’t give up. I had times where I almost did, times when I spent weeks hopeless, wandering. It has been a very up and down journey. You have to be brave sometimes, no matter what the outcome may be. You have to accept yourself as who you are and find beauty in it before others accept you as who you are. I’ve realized that progress is not a constant upward curve, it is very painful, tiring, and exhausting up and down curve which changes day by day. They are days where I don’t get any work done, but I try to do my best. Procrastination, laziness, distractions are all there but I’m working to get maximum productivity. It’ll take time, but I’ll get there. After a year of therapy and speech exercise, I finally went on stage and gave a speech! The first two lines were very tough: My breathing and heartbeat when through the roof but I handled it well. It wasn’t perfect but I guess you always have to leave room for improvement ;) I’ve always wanted to journal my experience with my stutter, but never really found the courage to write it down. But I’ll do it now, on this platform, with you guys. I hope you can hold me accountable for when I let fear overwhelm me! Trust me guys, things do get better. If I can do it, you can too. I’ll be sharing my journey here. There is a lot I have learned from this stutter; Valuable lessons that I want to share. I hope that I can be the comfort and hope for you guys, something I wished for deeply. Thank you all! You are amazing!