Posts Tagged ‘feelings about stuttering’
Life Gets In The Way – Episode 7
Posted on: June 8, 2010
Ep
isode 7 features Lesley Kodom-Baah, who hails from London. I first met Lesley on the covert list-serv,where she posted a lot of questions and shared her stuttering experience.
Soon enough, Lesley and I began following each other on Face book and Twitter. One social media account is never enough!
Lesley is a college student, majoring in Sociology. She shares what being young and in college with a stutter is like for her. Stuttering is like a taboo in England, so Lesley largely lived her life as a covert. We talk about that as well. She was eager to talk with someone about admitting and being a covert.
Lesley reveals some powerful insights in this episode. She discusses having felt locked in a prison,and the contrasting feelings she now has of being liberated. We discuss fears of not being liked or loved,and how stuttering makes you humble. Lesley also freely discusses her family life and her goals for the future.
Lesley attributes a major change in her life to having listened to other stutterers on the podcast Stuttertalk.
Musical credit for the song “Today Then Tomorrow” goes to Dano Songs.
Feel free to leave comments or feedback. The discussions are always great.
It’s OK To Stutter – Episode 6
Posted on: June 2, 2010
Episode 6 welcomes Gloria Klumb from Madison, Wisconsin. Gloria is a NSA and Face book friend. She is leader of the Madison NSA Chapter.
She often reads my posts on this blog and takes the time to comment. So it was a no-brainer that she and I would eventually chat and put our great minds together.
We talk about different things. Her friend Bernie pestered her for a year to attend her first NSA conference. That conference was so life-changing that Gloria wound up moving from one city to another in Wisconsin so that she could be close to a NSA group, and then wound up being chapter leader. Another friend Bob “conned” her into eventually co-leading a stuttering workshop.
Gloria also tells about why she couldn’t tell her own children where she went or why when she attended NSA events. And she talks about her “freedom trail”, work and even Botox.
These conversations with women are turning into exactly what I had hoped for. We don’t need “famous” people to inspire us with their stuttering stories. Ordinary people lead amazing lives every single day, and it is important to listen to these stories. Gloria’s “tell” is wonderful!
Musical credit for the intro and out-tro of the song “I’m Gonna Go” goes to Dano Songs.
Feel free to leave comments and feedback for Gloria. (And me too!)
Trying Not To Stutter
Posted on: May 31, 2010
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My school’s annual awards night is this Wednesday. Which means that I get to be up on stage, facilitating part of the program as adviser for our school’s chapter of the National Technical Honor Society.
I will be conducting the induction ceremony for the kids elected in to this prestigious club. I will lead them in a candle lighting ceremony, and then call each students name as they come on stage and receive their certificates.
This will be my third time doing this. So I should be totally comfortable with it, right? Wrong!
If you recall, I wrote about this at around this same time last year. When I did it for the first time in 2008, I felt very disrespected when my boss told me I had butchered the kids names when reading them at the ceremony. What he referred to as butchering was actually stuttering on the first letter or sound of the names.
I stuttered last year when I did it as well. But I had thrown in a quick humorous line about my stuttering to put me and the audience at ease.
So this year, it is two days away and I am feeling anxious. I would prefer not to stutter as I call the student’s names. So, I am practicing the names, to be sure I have the pronunciation correct and perhaps even a bit of timing or cadence so that it doesn’t “sound so much like stuttering”.
Ridiculous, isn’t it? I know in my head that it is ridiculous to worry about stuttering on the names, because I stutter, and it is what it is. But I do. I can’t seem to “turn off” the human propensity to worry about things that really aren’t that big of a deal. For I will probably be the only one thinking it is a big deal.
Everybody else (as they should be) will be reveling in the excitement of the night. And I will be obsessing if I sounded all right calling some names off that no one will probably remember in a day or two anyway.
So maybe, knowing that, I can just relax and get on with it and not make such a big deal out of it.
Whats the worse that can happen? My boss may call me in for some feedback again. Maybe this time, if he insults me, maybe I will have the courage to tell him how that makes me feel.
In the meantime, I am going to try to enjoy the rest of my Memorial Day holiday. Thanks to all the heroes who make it possible to even have the freedom to express myself in this way.
Episode 5 welcomes NSA friend Stacey Fitzenrider, who hails from Seattle, Washington. I e-met Stacey several years ago through various stuttering groups and met her in person last year at the NSA Scottsdale conference.
She and 5-year-old daughter Ava came to the Open Mic session that I hosted at 8:30 am on Thursday, as a favor to a good friend who asked me to fill in for him at the last minute.
Always the good sport, I was at the ready at 8:30am. Not too many other people were (!), so I had the chance to chat it up with Stacey and Ava. We chatted as if we had known each other for ever. And Ava did a good deal of the chatting. It was a treat getting to know them.
Really cool fact – Stacey’s “handle” is chattygirl. Don’t ya love it? And you will love Stacey’s gut honesty as we chat about all kinds of things, including choices, parents that stutter, feeling whole, and living life.
Musical credit for the intro song “Today Then Tomorrow” goes to Dano Songs.
Feel free to leave comments. As a matter of fact, I encourage it. Let Stacey know your thoughts.
Episode 4 features my friend Lori Melnitsky, who is a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) and a woman who stutters. Lori and I first met at a National Stuttering Association annual conference two years ago. She is a co-leader for the Long Island NSA Chapter. We have kept up with each other by phone and email.
Lori has her own private practice, All Island Speech & Stuttering Therapy. She also maintains a blog, which can be accessed directly from her web page. Her blog details her personal journey with stuttering and provides updates for people she works with and anyone who may be interested in therapy.
In this episode, Lori talks about how she overcame severe stuttering, and how that motivated her to want to help people who stutter. We also share our opinions on fluency therapies, how tough it is sometimes to accept compliments,and how important it is for women to communicate and share with one another.
Musical credit for the intro “I’m Gonna Go” goes to “Free Royalty Free Music” by Dano Songs.
Please feel free to leave comments. We welcome your feedback.
Lots Of Tough Stuff-Episode 3
Posted on: May 17, 2010
Episode 3 welcomes Annetta Price from Trinidad and Tobago. I first came to know Annetta when she started commenting on this blog and began sharing some of her own feelings about stuttering,which she had rarely made public.
We do a lot of honest talking about how stuttering makes us feel. We cover a lot in a short time, including some of the tough stuff, like feeling flawed, vulnerable and inadequate.
Annetta starts off by explaining that she prefers to be affectionately called Marie, because she can say that, instead of always stuttering on the “A” in the name Annetta. I was very impressed that she shared that right off the bat – as that certainly is not easy to publicly admit.
This episode features my first attempt at adding a little intro music. It took me a long time to add a 15 second clip. I am confident that I will get better at this each week. Musical credit for “Silver Shine” goes to “Free Royalty Free Music” by Dano Songs.
Annetta authors a wonderful blog herself, called Finally A Mom. Her blog has been commended by the community health blog-o-sphere, as her personal experiences helps many, many women. Check it out!
Feel free to leave comments or ask Annetta questions.
If Anyone Stutters, We’ll . . . .
Posted on: May 14, 2010
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At my Toastmasters meeting last week, I winced a little when a member stood up and explained his meeting role to the group. We do that in Toastmasters -we have people fulfill roles, and always explain what it is we are doing and why. Its good protocol and helps guests and new members to understand what is going on.
The guy who was to be the “Ah Counter” and grammarian for the evening stood and introduced himself and began to explain what his role for the evening would be and why it mattered. The “Ah Counter” has the dubious job of keeping track how many times filler words -such as uhm, ah, like, you know-are used throughout the meeting.
This is so people are more aware of doing this, so that we can encourage speakers to pause briefly or use transition phrases. The grammarian report is to help people use grammar and sentence structure more effectively.
So I was a bit surprised when the guy adds to his explanation, “if anyone stutters, we’ll hit them over the head with this (Toastmasters) manual”. Not one person in the room batted an eyelash or seemed to react that this was anything negative, except me. Of course! I felt my face flush, and said to myself,”what did he just say? No, he didn’t!”
But he did and I didn’t say anything! I am sure he meant no disrespect and may not even have been aware that he said it. I was aware and so flirted with the idea of saying something quick like, “unless of course you’re me and can’t help it”.
It didn’t seem appropriate to embarrass him, if he would have even been embarrassed by any reaction by me. It’s a moot point now, as I let it pass.
Except it just reminds me that it is up to us, those who stutter, to keep educating and raising awareness so people don’t think its acceptable to make flip comments like that.
Because it’s not!
Make Room For The Stuttering 
What people are saying!