Today I was chatting with someone about stuttering. He told me he has a friend who stutters, but doesn’t know much about stuttering. He asked me if I stutter less around friends, as opposed to strangers or people I don’t know very well.

You would think the answer would be that I stutter less around friends, but its the other way around. Around strangers or people I don’t know well, I tend to mask my stuttering and feel some pressure to stutter less. Use those old tricks.

Around friends and people I am really comfortable with, I stutter more. That’s because I feel comfortable enough to do that, and feel so comfortable with that person that there is no need for pretense, tension, or conscious avoidance techniques. I consider it a very good sign when I am stuttering naturally, with smooth and easy repetitions. I have almost no tension when stuttering comfortably. Its also a sign that I like you very much when I stutter a lot around you.

I would never have given this question any consideration if I was still hiding my stuttering. I would have been embarrassed. And I don’t think my friend would have even asked. Being open allows someone to feel comfortable enough to ask that. And I felt perfectly comfortable answering his question, honestly. That is so special.

And what’s really cool . . . . . . . . a lot of people are getting to hear my stuttering. My world keeps getting bigger and bigger everyday. Reminds me of something that good friend Lee told me about a year ago, when I shared with her that I was out of the stuttering closet. She said very simply, “Welcome to the world”.