November 12 Meeting Update: Skill Sets

One of our group members, in talking about his work, referred to his speech as just one of several skill sets that he has. That struck me as a really useful way to approach speech, whether or not you stutter. It's especially useful if you do stutter, because it's so easy for a stutterer to think of his or her speech as a character flaw, rather than simply an ability, a skill that can be cultivated--or not, depending on what we want out of life.

Not all of us can, or want to, become charismatic public speakers who hold a whole room under a spell when we tell a story. But we have other qualities. We work hard, we're good listeners, we are focused and motivated. Those things matter just as much, if not more, than our speech. Being a person who stutters doesn't cancel out all the other positive aspects of our personality.

Once you stop looking at the world through a lens warped by stuttering, you discover that the world is much bigger than you thought, and that you yourself have more to offer and contribute to the world than you imagined. It's easier, then, to stand up for yourself. You begin to see that the most important thing about you is not how you speak. You have many other skills that you've worked hard to perfect and that you have every right to be proud of.

Here's what I'm working towards: when someone says, "Hey, you stutter!" I answer, "So what?" (Someone should put that on a t-shirt.) I know it sounds like a dream. But it's really just a skill: to see the person in "person who stutters."