Feeling amazing! Conquered my largest mountain this past weekend!!

Feeling amazing! Conquered my largest mountain this past weekend!! Hi everyone! So on Sunday night, I conquered my most feared mountain. I gave a 10 minute speech at my brother’s wedding as his best man. I am 31 years old and have dealt with a “mild” stutter, covertly, my entire life that only my family is aware about (including immediate, aunts, uncles, cousins). I typically stutter the most (speech blocks primarily) when I have to read something from a book/paper/etc. Otherwise, I’ve become pretty decent at anticipating blocks and replacing words. However, even though everyone knows, it’s always been a taboo topic and NEVER brought up by any of my family in any capacity. It was just assumed by my family that I shouldn’t/couldn’t speak publicly throughout childhood and adulthood and that assumption impacted me greatly my entire life. I always felt that I was looked down on by my other “well-spoken” and “more intelligent” family members. The fear of giving this speech took over my life this past month when I found out the wedding was on and actually had to give it. My brother never officially asked me to give a speech (probably assuming I didn’t want to do it) but I knew in my heart that it would be even more shameful and embarrassing for me if I didn’t give a speech and the maid of honor did. Plus, my brother is a great man and I knew he deserved a great best man speech. For the first time, I had an opportunity to prove my entire family wrong and do what they all thought I couldn’t. Speak publicly in an elegant and confident way. I spent the entire month everyday practicing my speech in front of my wife. (She knows about my stuttering). It was a step forward for me because no one has ever heard me give any sort of public speech or even be vulnerable enough to read out loud. The night of the wedding, I felt the nerves when it was time for me to speak. But somehow, the opportunity to prove my entire family wrong took over that moment. I was confident in my practicing, stuck to the script in the beginning (wrote everything down and read from a paper), but immediately realized that I had ended up memorizing the speech! It was the greatest moment of my life. I was able to speak and recite the speech primarily without the paper and without ONE stutter. Of course, I felt several blocks throughout the speech, but trusted myself and breathed right through them. I didn’t have to anticipate and replace ONE WORD! Everyone came up to me afterwards with tears in their eyes completely impressed and shocked. My brother gave me a huge hug after the speech and whispered to me “That was absolutely perfect. I love you so much.” My mom for the first time acknowledged my stutter in a way by saying “That was a perfect speech and the delivery was unbelievable. I know that must have been very hard and you must have practiced so much. I am so proud of you.” It meant the world to me. That night, I felt that I could FINALLY open up about my stuttering and confidently talk about it without feeling ashamed or embarrassed. For all of you here that have this same fear or their own “mountain” that they are waiting to conquer, I can honesty say that (a lot of) practice, and confidence in yourself goes A LONG way! You are good enough and it took me conquering my fear to realize that, even though it should have never been a doubt in my mind! This journey from the first time I practiced to the night of the speech helped me realize that the way I speak WILL NOT define me anymore!!