Grateful – Episode 87
Posted on: June 25, 2012
Episode 87 features Molly Tkacik, who hails from Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. Molly is 23 years old and works as a Certified Nurse Assistant with Alzheimer’s patients.
Molly just recently returned from an eleven month mission trip to eleven countries. What a feat for a young person! Amazing!
Listen in as Molly describes how she found this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel the world and engage in ministry work.
Molly shares her journey with stuttering and the perspective shift she has had as a result of her physical journey. We also discuss building up and tearing down walls, acceptance, confidence and gratitude.
To learn more about the work Molly was involved in, please visit her blog at worldrace. I was very inspired by Molly’s story. Please feel free to leave comments for Molly (or me!) Remember, feedback is a gift.
The podcast safe music used in this episode is credited to ccMixter.
4 Responses to "Grateful – Episode 87"
June 25, 2012 at 8:13 PM
Got alot to say today… 1) Pamela Mertz you have such a great voice and I really enjoyed your interview style. Great questions to Molly and you gave her time to answer them without interruption. 2) Speaking of interviews I never have listened to anything in my life for 40 minutes but there I was listening and working and finding myself rewinding certain parts. 3) Molly great job on the interview and more importantly in life. You’re going to take that 11 month trip with you everywhere you and that is going to give you the courage and inspiration to reach higher and go further. This is the kind of inspiration we need– people who are out there living as if there is only one more tomorrow. Beautiful and inspiring my favorite combo platter although the surf and turf is a close second.
June 27, 2012 at 1:44 PM
What an excellent interview. We’re so proud of Molly and all she’s accomplished. Molly’s being able to express herself so freely and openly is a true gift to all of us. She has overcome so much and is such an amazing person. God bless her and God bless you for your ministry to women who stutter.
Make Room For The Stuttering 
June 25, 2012 at 1:54 PM
First of all, I would like to say that I think Molly Tkacik is an amazing person. I think I have post that on her page before but I want everyone to know this person.
After playing the whole interview from start to finish I have a new insight about the person and not just the person on FB.
Molly has done so many amazing things despite her stutter. She has seen place that most only seen in books or TV. I grew up in many different parts of the world and have seen many of the things she describe in this interview. I think she understands that life in America is very different than in other place in the world. She has such an open mind and does not let her stutter hold her back from life.
I think many PWS allows themselves to be held back due to their stutter and the fear of rejection, this is not Molly in any stretch of the imagination. I took some notes throughout the interview and wanted to touch base on some very important things that Molly talked about.
1st is she understand that us as Americans have so much and we still seem to complain about the little things in life. She has seem what it really is to be poor. I took a poll one time and ask people what it is to be poor, some Americans claim to be poor even when they have, cell phones, internet, cable, dishwasher, kitchen, power, at least one car and so on.. Molly understands that this is not the real world when talking about being poor.
Molly never seems or comes off as playing the victim role. I think this is a strong message for the younger people and some older PWS. Playing the victim role is the easy thing to do, standing up and having a voice is the challenge.
In the interview, she mentioned a job interview and how difficult that was.. and Pam asked about the older people reactions to her stutter. Molly said that she would inform them of her stutter to they would not look at her crazy. Applaud goes out to Molly for this. I do this all the time in my personal life. I don’t walk around and yell out loud that I stutter, ,but I let the people who I have direct contact with know so they will understand if I need more time.
You mention the your blogs,, I would love to read them, would you comment on here with the www. Link.
I have known a few PWS in the past that refuse to go to college due to their stutter. Again, Molly is not letting her stutter hold her back and wants to go to college as X-ray tech. Wonderful; we need more good people taking care of people.
Ok.. Enough from me. I just wanted to end this as saying; I wish more people were like you, Molly. I know the world would be a better place. Hope to meet you one day.
June 25, 2012 at 8:12 PM
Lott thank you so much for your kind words. Thank you or taking the time to listen to the pod cast. You are right on everything, but I had to learn while on the race that my stutter is not such a big deal. It took time, but I did come to realize that I am more then just my stutter. I am a child of God. Thank you again. My blog post is http://mollytkacik.theworldrace.org/ . You can go on the side bar and click on the months to view the blogs in that month. I was gone for a year so I do have a lot of blogs, but I do have a lot on my stuttering.