I am a stutterer.  I confess.  I thought it was time.  When I have told people I am shy, they always laugh and say, “Sure”.  They never believe me.  I guess that’s because they never understand.  They don’t know the history.  They don’t know what it was like as a child to try and say words that wouldn’t come out, watch people stare, or laugh, or try and help (as if they could somehow reach in your mouth and pull out the words for me) .  Instead I usually went into the world of I’ll shut up and go somewhere and be by myself (self-imposed isolation and anxiety) or the other extreme, people please into someone liking me.  But I digress.  The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association has been around for 83 years, according to its website.  I certainly didn’t know about it.  Wish I did.  Could have saved me a lot of frustration.  But I now offer it up to you if you have a child suffering through stuttering or stammering.  It can last a lifetime.  But it doesn’t have to.    There are famous stutterers you know?  20-20’s John Stossel, Singer Carly Simon, Tiger Woods, Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis, B.B. King, to name a few.  The Stuttering Foundation Website lists a whole bunch more, including Vice President Joe Biden.  Who knew?!     Stutteriing always made me feel I was different.  It made social situations awkward, always filled with anxiety, for fear of losing control with my speech.  I thought if I could talk fast enough, I wouldn’t make a mistake.  A southerner with a drawl trying to speak fast–it was a mess!  I wanted to be treated like everyone else, to fit in.  I wanted people to give me the time to say what I needed to say.  Isn’t that really what we all want.  Just the time to say what we need to say?  And someone to take the time to listen?  Just look what we can grow into, if only we get the chance.  Thanks for taking the time to listen (or read) my confession.