Here's how stuttering "positively" impacts my life: \- With any neurological difference or personal struggle, it makes you more attuned to others' disabilities and differences, and you become more aware and accepting of everyone \- I often don't expect people to understand, just because you don't encounter many other people who sutter on a day-to-day basis. I've only ever encountered one other person who stutters, and that was a few years ago (I'm 21). So if someone does offend me or say something rude, I just acknowledge that it's usually from a place of ignorance/unawareness. It doesn't make it any less frustrating though, which is why it's always good to be the bigger person and respond to them with kindness--always, no matter how tempting it can be to tell someone to fuck off when they say somerthing rude. Here's how it "negatively" impacts my life: \- I usually know when I am going to stutter when thinking of what I want to say in my head, which builds up a lot of anxiety. And the anxiety often exacerbates the stutter. So with this in mind, when faced with high-pressure situations (ex: ordering food), I often write my order out on my notes app, because I can never, if not rarely order food fluently, and then I always end up having to explain to the person what's going on. Writing it out on your notes app is different, and although it might make you feel weird in the moment, I think it's good to normalize that you need alternate accomodations sometimes. And with that, ordering food takes 5 minutes out of your day, so it's really not a lot, and you will later forget about it and enjoy your meal :) \- Similar thing with phone calls; I HATE phone calls... I'm never fluent, I much rather prefer facetime or texting. So whenever I have to do adult things and make phone calls, I always decline them or avoid the,. I find that no amount of speech therapy can help me, it's always the same outcome. This makes it quite difficult to manage the important things though, like appointments, medications, work/school committments, online therapy (UGH! so frustrating). \- Introducing yourself in class or in a social gathering, so frustrating \- Being at a party, wanting to talk to all the cool people, but knowing when you're gonna stutter, and what it'll be on, and having to mask it--it's SO exhausting and draining. \- Family is not so accomodating. I've had my brother say things like "you need to grow up and learn how to be comfortable taking phone calls, not everyone can accomodate you all the time," (but this is coming from a guy who doesn't struggle with disabilities) \- People who aren't educated on stuttering; They hear it for the first time, they start laughing, smiling, getting visibly uncomfortable being in your presence, making excuses to not be around you because they can't deal with it. I've had teachers mock my stutter in front of my classmates and then I end up crying and feeling so embarrassed in front of everyone, I've had people laugh in my face and ask if I'm having a stroke, and I've had people who look so so uncomfortable around me. It's definitely frustrating. I do find that you develop a thick skin as time goes on, but it doesn't make these encounters any less hurtful. Let's be honest, it sucks most of the time, but you got to remind yourself that people who make you feel bad about it have their own insecurities and issues that they need to deal with, and why would you want someone in your life who treats you like that? All in all, stuttering I find is a living-learning experience. I find that you can always find a silver lining to any unpleasant situation if you try :)