Stammering

Since I was young, I hated the thought of speaking in front of people. It made me nervous. The main reason I had this fear was because of my stammering problem which I had, as far as I can remember, ever since I started talking. This was the reason why I preferred to not to talk to any strangers but only my close friends and my parents. I would say that my stammering was kind of weird because as I grew older, it came for few months and then disappeared for about 2 months and after that came back again. It was so irritating. It will come during my oral presentations in school or when I wanted to tell something very important to someone. It would spoil the effect of the message that I wanted to convey.



I have had many bad experiences due to stammering. During my primary school days, some students used to tease me, but thankfully, I had a friend who was always there to support me. Bless her. Even my cousins would laugh at me when I stammered while talking to them. They found it very humorous. Only I knew how it felt each time I stammered, I felt very shameful and my confidence went down the drain. When I went to secondary school, I dreaded the moments when the teacher called me to read out something. I was a prefect. Unfortunately, in my school, the form five prefects were required to be the master of ceremony twice a year during assembly. I thought to myself , ‘Great, now the whole school will know that I stammer and I am definitely going to make a fool of myself’. Well, it was not that bad after all. I managed to pull it off with all my friends’ moral support.


After my form five examination, I realized that all my friends were not going to be with me in college. I was on my own now. Even worse, I had to live in a hostel. I had no choice but to start talking. Now, I would say that I am a bit better than before. If I stammer, I try to accept it and take it positively; even though it still hurts at times. Nevertheless, I still have a long way to go in building my confidence level. Good luck to me!

Posted by: A.Padmassini A/P V.Anand