[ Contents | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Paul
Date: 10/17/02
Time: 3:32:49 PM
Remote Name: 193.217.214.171
Personally I think the Internet is a wonderful way to "break the ice", especially for someone like myself who stutters who has often experienced much speech difficulty when meeting new people. During my long bachelorhood in the U.S. I often felt very nervous on first dates, as I wanted to make a nice impression and my frequently severe stuttering would sometimes get in the way of expressing myself fully with oral language. When communicating by the Internet, however, stuttering is totally irrelevant. It was much easier for me to get to know Liv by E-mail, and to fully communicate to her my deepest thoughts unhampered by any speech fears or anxiety, than it had been to get to know my earlier girlfriends in the U.S. during the early stages of the dating process. Liv and I have both written more on this topic above - see my (Paul's) response to Judy Kuster's inquiry "For all four of you", and Liv's response to "A beautiful Love Story". The Internet is a fantastic invention. If it had been around in its present form much earlier in my life, it certainly would have made things a lot easier for me! - Paul