Over the last few days, I have been thinking and talking a lot about stuttering. That’s not all I do – Eat, Sleep and Dream stuttering.

I need to acknowledge this which is true. I have been home everyday since losing my full time professional job in June. So, it’s been more than 5 months that I haven’t had any kind of typical day; no coworkers to catch up with on Monday; no students to give the look and ask to remove their hats.

Yep, suffice it to say, I have been isolated and find myself staying in 3-4 days a week. Not going out to drive to work, making errands on the way, and no “happy feet” dance on Fridays, when all of our feet were trying to leave a few minutes before our regular time, when the bells would ring 4:30 pm and we’re on the run to our cars.

Now, with talking to only a few people for a few minutes a week, I haven’t been able to have conversations often. So, when I do, I’m struggling a little more because I just haven’t talked to enough people today.

So how does all of this pertain to the title, “The Essence of Stuttering.” I’m titling this piece such because I have thought about what the true essence of stuttering really is. For me, the essence of stuttering is “what’s left unsaid.” We, me, people who stutter feel emotional and physical signs of struggle – our faces flush, our chest tightens, we squeeze one or both eyes shut while talking/stuttering because it seems that might loosen the words to fly out.

In addition to those physical feelings, we have the emotions: shame, guilt, fear, helplessness, self loathing.

I spoke with someone last week in a video chat and we were discussing anything positive that has come out of stuttering. We wanted to have a short list of attributes and assets that validate the reasons why companies should hire people who stutter.

We shifted so far from that conversation, that it became something else. We acknowledged that having dealt with stuttering and false assumptions for so long, some may think that since we have stuttering superpowers, we should always get the job or promotion.

Nah! What my friend and I came up with is this:

People who stutter have many strong workplace aptitudes, such as strong listening skills, the ability to be empathetic, always over prepared. But the thing with this is – there are thousands of fluent people out there with those same skills. Having those attributes is great for any employee hoping to be the next hire. But we who stutter want the world to see that aside from stuttering, we have all of those other traits too. The difference is with the “false assumption cloud” hanging so close, it clouds our ability to see the skills the candidates have, both the persons who stutters and those who don’t.

If an employer can see past the stuttering and look for the strengths that person brings (whether they are the stutterer or the fluent) then we will have captured the “essence of stuttering.”

Not long after this conversation and encounter, I happened to get an email from good friend Barry, who penned a stellar article about stuttering, published in The Baffler. Read his article here. His article also sums up the true essence of stuttering.