I stutter. But I am not a stutterer.
It does not define me; rather it complements me.
Through the course of history, individuals who stutter have entered into all realms of life. In a religious sense, Moses stuttered. Yet so did Marilyn Monroe. As did James Earl Jones (“This is AT&Tâ€), Isaac Newton, Winston Churchill, and numerous other famous people. And many more unknown people, perhaps because of their speech.
When I made Aliyah, and first went to a doctor, I saw that they wrote that down on my chart. When I went to recruitment centre, I noticed that they wrote that on my profile.
And that shocked me. It has nothing to do with my ability at all: I give business presentations, I act under pressure, and I am extremely talkative and fluent in multiple languages. I get my point across. And I hope that the content of that point is worth it.
I noticed an article on the front page of the newspaper Haaretz (in Hebrew) today, regarding Organization of Stutterers in Israel (AMBâ€I). Apparently, their 10th Annual Conference will take place tomorrow.
The three major messages of the conference are:
1) For HR people, there is no reason not to hire someone because he stutters, as you may lose a genius.
2) For those looking for a life partner, don’t give up.
3) And for those who speak with those who stutter – don’t help them. They know the word, and your help is no help at all. Give a few more seconds of your time instead.
Personally, I don’t know if I ever was refused a job due to lack of elocution, but I know that a close friend of mine once told me that she could not date me because of it.
That doesn’t keep me up at night.
It did when I was younger. For all intents and purposes, until college.
Instead, my time now is full of people who talk to me. My speech impediment taught me how to listen.
