I wasted over 15 years of my life hiding from everything because I couldn’t talk. I was sick of being looked at like I was mentally challenged. Jobs wouldn’t hire me. I’m 40 years old and I think I’m about 80% fluency now. My self worth was based on what I thought other people thought of me. Now as 40 years old I realize that I wasted my life because of fears. No one cares if I stutter. There is always a job out there for me, always was. I was just afraid. I wish to god I could go back knowing now that people don’t care. I cared, that’s about it. Most people are sympathetic, and relate in some way. I found that starting conversations with “forgive me, I have a stutter..” made it 100x easier because then they expected it and there was no awkwardness. I feel like an idiot I let it control me for so long.