My experience as a waiter with a stutter

My experience as a waiter with a stutter I've stuttered all my life. For the past 21 years, it's been a serious issue. I was never bullied about it at all and only had support but it was still a struggle of not being able to truly talk how I want to talk. I was really shy growing up and never really talked to anyone, I just didn't see how people could value a conversation with me because of how much I stutter. My first job was working in a kitchen at a local restaurant my dad pulled some strings for. "You got the job just by showing up," said my boss when I went to the interview and he assured me that my stutter wasn't going to be an issue. Eventually when I worked up to a fry cook position communication became a hell of a lot more essential. Tickets flying through left and right with people yelling at each other about what needs to be made. It was hard communicating about what I had cooking and the ETA on different foods but we made it work. In the plethora of arguments, I got into there not one person used my stutter against me. I've been scared my whole life of getting shit from people about my sutter but at 19 years old it was yet to happen. I left the job and got a job working for the family construction business for a bit only for the pandemic to come in to lose my job. I spent a couple of months unemployed just trying to find a job. Any and all jobs I could apply to I would. The first response I got was from my local Olive Garden about a serving position. I was somewhat scared due to the fact that a serving job requires you to talk *so much* to so many different people. But because I didn't have any other options I went ahead and scheduled an interview. Towards the end of the interview, he told me that I had gotten the job and began to run me through the standard stuff like orientation. At the end of the interview when he asked me if I had any questions I mentioned that I had a speech impediment. I was stuttering during the interview but I wanted to be open and communicate this to him considering that he would be my boss from here on out. He assured me that it wasn't going to be an issue and that we could work around it. When I started training it wasn't that bad because I didn't have any tables to myself. I was just watching the lady who was training me do it. Once I was allowed to have my own tables they explained to me the requirements of what I have to say in my greet. The biggest thing was stating my name and making a recommendation. Something to the effect of: "I would recommend our Italian Rum Punch as it has a nice fruity taste to it." Something simple to get the customers' attention as something they could order. Immediately red flags started going off about how much I'd stutter, and sure enough, when I went up to my tables I was stuttering like crazy. I was scared and anxious about how I'd be reviewed by the customers and how it could lead to my termination if my guest satisfaction was so low. I told myself that I wasn't going to feed into the anxiety and stress and that I was going to do the best job that I can do. Over the course of starting out my stutter wouldn't go away. I sometimes needed a full reset because of how much I was stuttering and jumbling my words together. One of the things I do to reset myself after a bad stutter is to say "sorry about that I have a speech impediment which prevents me from speaking clearly sometimes." Almost every single time I say that, like once or twice a weekend, the people at the table tell me that they understand and how I shouldn't worry about it. I even had a customer of mine come up to me as they were leaving and told me: "I heard you tell the other table that you had a speech impediment. I think it's absolutely fantastic that you aren't letting it prevent you from having this job. It gets more awareness out there about stuttering so people can learn more and be more understanding about it. You shouldn't have to apologize about it. It's what makes you unique." Him saying that to me made my day. It was the turning point that really made me believe that nobody cares that I have a stutter. They aren't going to think less of me just because I have a stutter. Yeah, there's going to be people in this world that make fun of and mock people with a stutter, but honestly? Fuck those people. They don't deserve my attention if they lack basic human empathy. The sheer amount of people I've met that have been so understanding and so compassionate has blown me away. My fears and anxieties about my stutter and how it defines me have completely faded away. For years I wanted to pursue education as my career but I was too scared of my sutter getting in the way but since getting this job its reinvigorated me to switch my major to education and pursue what I want to pursue. All because I learned to not be scared of my stutter, but to understand that it's a part of me that isn't going to prevent me from achieving what I want to achieve.