An Open Letter To Everyone Who Laughs When I Stutter

An Open Letter To Everyone Who Laughs When I Stutter To Everyone Who Laughs When I Stutter, Do you know what differentiates humans from other animals? It is our ability to understand complex language (amongst other things). And it is magical - we can talk about our feelings and our thoughts and our ideas and so much more. But sometimes I cannot. I want to add to the conversation, I want to make a witty joke, I want to tell my friends why something is bothering me - but I am physically unable to. It is like being given the keys to your dream car, but with a damaged gas pedal that just randomly fails sometimes without any warning … and the mechanic doesn’t know why. It is defeating and it makes you feel so damn powerless. I cannot even describe the feeling of when my brain has already said something, and begun running the scenario for the responses, but I am physically unable to say that thing. And you laugh at that - it is funny to you. I am already beating myself up about the fact I cannot communicate the way I want to, wishing I could just have a level playing field with everyone else, and you have the audacity to laugh. But that also means that I get it better than anyone, I know the feeling of wanting to fit in. I completely understand - we have to do what is best for ourselves - we are trying to make friends, climb the social ladder, impress a girl, whatever it is and in that moment, we seek the validation of the others in the group. We just laugh to fit in and we do not want to be the one who stands up for the wrongdoing. You take the easy path and it is the way that humans are hard-wired. But that sucks for me - I don’t know how else to say it. However, I urge you to think of a loved one - someone you care for deeply, and that powerless feeling when you cannot help them with a problem. Would you wish that on everyone? But then you those who go out of their way to make fun of it. I know you are not a bad person, but I also know that you can do better. I don’t blame you, but you must know you still are a part of the problem. It’s a problem at a much larger scale; talking about stuttering is not normalized, calling people out for making fun of it is not common, and forgetting that 1% of the world’s population deals with this on a daily basis is easy. But for those who have never experienced something like this, it is hard for you to fathom the severity of your actions and the impact on the person. But I urge you to take a second to reflect the next time a joke comes to your mind - you can do better and I know it. Consider the power of communication - it is a gift to you. Use it wisely, because you have been fortunate enough to be blessed with this magical ability. Let me let you in on a little secret - we are doing our part. Before we come up and talk to you we run through our opener; the week before our job interview we do exercises to make sure we don’t come across as nervous; before our presentation, we stretch our tongue so that we can be clear. We do this because we want to be better, you could be better too. Yours Faithfully, 1 of the 1%