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Today I smashed it My background: I have had a stammer since I was 4yrs old. I apparently stopped talking altogether when it started and went through 12 years of speech therapy. The problem with me, though, was that I was a chatterbox. Can you imagine what it's like to *want* to talk but when you do, you can't. It wasn't good. I went through school telling teachers not to ask me to talk aloud in class but they still would. I still remember my maths teacher making fun of me in front of the class when I stammered on a word. Worse for him as the headmaster's daughter was in my speech therapy class, so didn't take kindly to my mum letting him know what happened. Never got an apology though. Well today, I stood in front of a crowd of important people and did a full presentation in a calm and controlled way, swapping words for easier ones where I could. I even got complimented on how it went - and not in a sympathetic way - they genuinely meant it. It couldn't have gone better!!! It's not easy and I still get nervous and feel sick but the main thing for me, is to not care about what people think and just do it. I work in an industry where I have to present regularly and I still stammer - every day. It will never go away and there are still days when I literally cannot say a word because they just won't come out. But overall, I see it as something I do and not who I am. Anyway, I wanted to share.