The Things People Say (Stutterers Edition)

     I have had my stutter since I was able to speak, this has given me 13 years of unique stuttering experiences. These experiences include "advice" people have given me, comments I have received, bullying and other interesting situations. 

Goat Milk Man

    When I was attending a stuttering workshop camp over the summer, while I was 13, my clinician and I were going around the campus and advertising. One of the houses that we conducted a survey at was with this older gentleman. He invited us into his house, as wholehearted elderly people do. We declined but he was persistent about it. We sat down in his living room that had animal heads everywhere; I started asking questions from my survey sheet. The survey persisted of questions similar to "do you know what stuttering is," "do you think there is a cure," and etc. He started talking about one of his friends and how he had a stutter. He claimed that drinking goat milk cured his stutter. Of course, I was super kind and kept informing him about stuttering, but he truly believed that goat milk cures stuttering. He kept on telling me and my clinician, that also stuttered, that we should just try goat milk. 

It Is Contagious 

    That same year at the stuttering workshop camp, we went to the mall to conduct more surveys and to practice advertising. I was with my two clinicians, and we went up to this street performer who played the guitar. We asked him a different version of the survey; one of the questions was "do you think stuttering is contagious?" He answered confidently that stuttering was in fact contagious. After that response, I started to educate him on stuttering, but he shut me down and told me how scientists are wrong and that stuttering is contagious. He stated that I got my stutter from my mother because I grew up with her stuttering. After him explaining his reasoning, I tried explaining the science behind stuttering, but he was very close minded. I was very assertive giving him points about his theory being flawed; I grew up and have spoke to others who did not have a stutter, and they did not pick up on my stutter and I did not pick up on their fluency. 

You Just Have Tourettes 

    This year I started high school, I was only there for the first 3 days and then I had to miss 2 weeks because I was exposed to Corona Virus. Within the 3 days of me being at school, I already received numerous comments on my stutter. One of the conversations that stuck out was with this boy in my JROTC class, we will call him Dustin. I was talking to him in class, trying to make friends and make the awkward silence dissipate. We were having a pretty simple conversation, and then I hit a really hard block that my strategies did not seem to work so well on. He commented, "wow, nice speech," sarcastically. I told him that it is not funny and that I have a stutter, which is an actual speech disability. He continued to say, "nah, you just have tourettes." I sat there not knowing what to even say, I could not even tell if he was kidding or not. I told him that was ignorant and witless. He continued to make fun of it, so I made it my mission to one up him in everything. The next day, we had to to physical training; we started with pull-ups. Dustin went up first and did one, I then went up and made sure to do better than him. In total, I did 4 pull-ups, normally I am not the boasting type, but I had to take my chance. I went up to him while he was looking at me with his jaw dropped, and I said, "how is that for having tourettes."