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From: Chris
Date: 10/21/02
Time: 11:49:38 PM
Remote Name: 64.12.97.11
Matthew,
Thanks for your important thoughts. You're so right in that life can be tough enough, then you sprinkle in a little (or a lot) of stuttering and we REALLY have a challenge then. Hopefully, my observations can help clarify any confusion in stutterers' minds that they still have so many choices to live beyond the stuttering and find acceptance from others.
People are kind, by nature, and people, are self-focused by nature. Our stuttering is never necessarily a problem for others as long as they perceive it's not a problem for ourselves. All they will see is a normal, regular guy with the same interests, joys, activities and loves as them..who just happens to talk a little funny. Through our attitudes of taking charge of our life and not playing the victim, THAT's what the world will see and that's how people will respond.
No, it's not always easy nor always perfect. But between you and I, Matthew, I like the odds on favorite of the more positive and optimistic choice of jumping out there and living rather than choosing not to. Sadly, that's not the same for all stutterers, just like it's not the same for many fluent speakers. Fluent or disfluent, the world is full of the same types of people - encouragers and discouragers. I just found that there's a lot more good stuff that comes along with the choice to be encouraging and positive rather than critical and negative. Go figure?
Good luck and thanks again. Keep up the hard work to plug away.
Chris