I was at my sister Kimberly’s house and met her friend Max for the first time. I knew that Kim had told Max about me, as she had told him about this blog and he had read several posts. Max and I had also chatted via email a couple of times.  He had shared with me that he had stuttered a bit as a child.

I had told Kim that I would like to meet Max in person sometime, and voila, it happened last week. He’s a nice guy and we were chatting easily about different things. At one point, he said to me, “you don’t stutter, I haven’t heard you stutter at all”. I said something like, “yes, I do, I really do-you just wait, you’ll hear it!”

Sometime later in the conversation, Max remarked, “Oh, you’re right. I hear it now. You’re stuttering”.  He said it with such surprise, like he really thought me and my sister had been exaggerating that I stutter for some reason. Like I had made it up!

Anyway, I didn’t think too much more of Max’s comment until later, when we parted and Kim and I talked on the phone. She had been in the bathroom (really!) when Max and I had been chatting. She shared with me that she had laughed when she heard me from her perch say that, “Yes, I really do stutter”. She said it was funny, like I was trying to convince Max that I stuttered. She said I sounded defensive about my stuttering – like this, “yeah, its mine, you can’t have it. Don’t take it away from me.”

She told me again something she has said in the past about my stuttering. “Look at it like this Pam. You and others who stutter – you get to talk like that, while the rest of us don’t. It’s really pretty cool, isn’t it?”

Reminded me of friend’s Daniele Rossi’s web site, Stuttering Is Cool. It is cool if you allow yourself to think of stuttering positively, instead of negatively.

It’s funny to hear what others think about your stuttering. We are always so convinced that others are viewing it and hearing it as a  negative. Not always! Thanks Kim and Max!