Stu-Stu-stutter

I used to stutter. A fair bit. Well, alot and mainly in large groups.

I am sharing this for two reasons:

1. My niece has started to do it and

2. To show that even without any help, you can cease doing it.

I say 'cease' because I dont know how, why or when I stopped. It was kind of like one day, I just ran out of petrol, but instead of petrol, I ran out of stutter.

I certainly didnt stop from lack of trying. I tried for as long as I was afflicted and it never did change a damn thing. People used to try and help though, half heartedly. But what can you do really? Tell someone to take a deep breath? To 'sound' out the words? To not be nervous? To just not do it? I dont think so. And to the people who used to say those things to me? You think that I haven't already tried that?

Oh how I dreaded high school speeches. And the thing was, I would write a great speech, on paper it would get top marks, but after the 'presentation' the marks would dwindle. My friends were great though, they never made a big deal out of it, mainly because it rarely happended around them. It was more of a nervous, audience issue.

One thing I do remember and love though was one day I had a speech to give. It was year 9 English. The teacher would go through the class randomly and pick a name. This was pure hell. I could deal with alphabet order, my last name starts with a 'W' so i could relax for a while, but NO, not with random! But you know what, after working myself into such a state, the teacher never did call me up. I know he didnt forget, I think he was being nice. He knew I had done the work, he knew I understood the content (maybe better than others) but still, my name never did get called.

So when my niece stutters, I will never say anything 'helpful.' Instead I will read with her and never point it out, because she can't help it just like I couldn't.