1. texting is your friend (I text both of my significant others every day, I'm known as the well-spoken one in our polycule) 2. work on not sounding frustrated with yourself, it makes you seem much more competent, and also helps fluency a ton (I've got severe disfluency made worse by caffeine dependency for ADHD, and trust me this helps) 3. If someone is ableist towards you, drop them first. it's confident and emotionally mature behavior, and shifts your pool towards people more accepting of you (applies to both romantic and platonic relationships)