The Professional Is In

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Re: stuttering

From: David Shapiro
Date: 05 Oct 2012
Time: 21:40:31 -0500
Remote Name: 50.55.245.42

Comments

Hi Andrew, I really appreciate your excellent questions. I’ll address them here in one place. Being a friend is so important. In fact, some people say that “it takes a friend to be a friend” and that both being a friend and having a friend are among the best things in life. You sound like you’re a good friend; I bet you have good friends too. One of the best things about friendship is that we accept our friend just as he is, and in friendship we feel accepted just as we are. So while it is tempting to stutter if we want to be like our friend who stutters, it may be even better to show our friend that we accept him and like him just the way he is. And yes, being nervous can make us stutter even more sometimes. I know many people who stutter; I am a person who stutters too. I find that sometimes we stutter when we are happy; sometimes we stutter when we are sad. But we know that stuttering is only part of who we are. There are so many other things about us that our friends really like. For example, I like hiking, camping, swimming, bike riding, and fly fishing. Most of the times my friends are more interested in those activities and don’t even notice that I stutter. Let me tell you about my best friend. She’s a girl and I’ve known her a long time. I used to stutter really badly. I couldn’t say her name. I couldn’t even say my own name. Actually, I couldn’t say very much. Even though I sometimes still think about how bad my stuttering used to be, she tells me, “It wasn’t that bad.” She never saw it as big of a problem as I did. I think that is the best part of having a really good friend. My friend liked me just the way I was. She liked what I liked and she didn’t want me to be any different. And I really like her just the way she is. That she is my friend makes me very happy. So I hope you too will be happy to be a friend and to have a friend. That’s what really matters. I bet you already know that. Thank you again for your really good questions. Your friend, David


Last changed: 10/22/12