My brief introduction

[Cassie]

Hello everyone. I'd like to introduce myself. I have been stuttering for as long as I can remember. It has shaped my personality in both negative and positive ways. I feel that my stutter has made me more shy, insecure, and held me back from saying and doing many things in life. However, I feel that my stutter has provided me with an invaluable perspective toward life, patience, acceptance, sincere generosity, determination, and a strong hard work ethic. I am 21 and will be graduating with a BA in psychology in a few months. I am in the process of applying to graduate school for Speech-language pathology....Yes, I said speech-language pathology lol. Many people think it's shocking or somewhat odd for a stutterer to want to embark in a career such as this. If I do get accepted into graduate school despite my stutter, I know that my speech will be meticulously analyzed by my professors, peers, and future employers and patients. Despite all that scrutiny and potential negative experiences I may encounter, I STILL am hoping for this journey in life. The phrase, "When there is a will, there is a way" is analogous to my determination. I have so much passion for this field and for the advocacy of this speech disability. I used to let my stutter define me as a person and be my scapegoat for all the negative things that have happened to me. In the past few months, I have began to genuinely accept myself as a stutterer and no longer hate myself for not being able to control or hide my stutter. I look forward to reading all the members' stories and blogs.

"There should be no shame in stuttering and there should be no pride in fluency" ~I forget who said this but I really liked this quote.

"You can sit and dwell on your stuttering and think, 'Why Me?' OR you can choose to not let it victimize you and live your life!"

Best of luck to all of you :)

[E<3]

Im sure you'll be an amazing speech therapist. I think that someone who has actually been through the "life of a stutterer" or whatever could help another person by being somewhat of a role model. I had also thought about being a speech language pathologist but the amount of schooling kinda scared me away lol but i wish you the best!