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From: Irene Bullard
Date: 10 Oct 2011
Time: 09:27:51 -0500
Remote Name: 76.214.57.74
I thank you for your inciteful comments and am impressed with your knowledge and abiity to relate. I have been to only 2 NSA Conventions but your thoughts make me want to go to more to learn more from amd share more with others. I could not go to the conventions the last few years because of work and then family commitments. Maybe next year. In your speaking of the ups and downs of therapy, of the successes and then the falling apart of fluency I was reminded of a speech a friend recently gave to her graduating class in a commencement address for an Executive MBA degree. She quoted Churchill, "Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage what counts". As people who stutter I think we can all benefit from this iciteful quote. I can recall, from my younger days, when approaching an especially feared situation, saying to myself, "The worst that can happen is that it would kill me, and that is highly unlikely to happen". This gave me the courage to face the situation no matter how severely I stuttered. Sometimes it did not go well and sometimes it did, but in either case I came out of the situation being proud that I faced my own fears and that I spoke when I wanted to or needed to speak. Avoidence was an option I did not want, for that only made me feel worse about myself. I wanted to speak and be heard. I would surmise that since you moved to Norway your fluency periods may not be as frequent but that your communication has improved by "letting go".