In an earlier post, I referred to how I stutter sometimes as stutter-eze. It’s what I mean when I am stuttering so comfortably, that its hardly noticeable to me or the listener.

Well, I spoke stutter-eze this morning with a colleague at work. We were  working on a plan for student advisement, which we will have to present to the team on Wednesday. I stuttered on a few words, and she said something like how confident I look when I stutter. She then asked me if there were certain words I tend to stutter more on, or if I knew when I was going to stutter.

I told her how situational stuttering is, and how it shows up whenever it feels like it. I  shared that there are certain sounds I have more trouble with – and described them as  “class four” sounds, which meant nothing to her. So I further explained that words that begin with “t”, “d” “p” and a “hard c” often give way to stuttering.

I also shared that I almost always stutter in the middle of one particular word, communication. And as I said it, of course it came out like it always does, “communica-ca-ca-ca-tion”.  She smiled and said she has to be mindful to make sure she doesn’t stutter around me, because she finds herself doing that,and she doesn’t want me to think she is making fun of me. I assured her I am OK with that.

Then she asked me if I ever do get made fun of.  I told her “sure” and gave her the example of  when I couldn’t say American cheese at the deli, and the clerk told me I would have to buy chicken wings instead. She burst out laughing, and so did I. It was not funny to me at the time, but it sure was nice to share a laugh over a stuttering moment with someone who gets stutter-eze.

She then went on to say, “I hope you don’t  get offended, but I am going to share something biblical with you. God always picks the ones with a challenge to do the toughest work. Its amazing that with a speech difficulty, you are such a great public speaker.”  Of course I was not offended.

It’s fun to speak stutter-eze with someone who doesn’t stutter, isn’t it?