67) Overcoming speech impediment

Wi-Will I e-ever be able to speak fluently and con-confidently in a group?’

Growing up, I was a shy girl with low self-esteem and avoided public gatherings. For the first 15 years of my life, my social activities were limited as I was an embarrassment to myself. Some people would ridicule even to the extent of mimicking my stammer.

Though I secured top grades, my social life in school was a complete nightmare. When having to read passages out aloud, I would count out the paragraph most likely to be read by working out the number of people to speak ahead of me. Then I would glance at the paragraph ‘praying’ that there weren’t too many complex words.

For one so shy and diffident, I thought career options would be few. Even as a child, I could perceive my parent’s concern and anxiety as they enrolled me to a speech therapist for remedial lessons. Though I had to cycle 5 miles in hot afternoons, I was determined to overcome this disability.

My parents would keep a check on my rate of speech. I would venture out alone in the park for practice, monitor myself in front of a mirror, exercise my vocal chords and breathe sufficiently deep to complete a sentence fluently. I concentrated on television personalities and imitate their diction and accent. I decided to no longer substitute difficult words or have friends do the talking for me. It proved a long and hard toil often depressing at times. After months of practice, I found that I was getting better.

At this point the stammer was controlled considerably. I started reading news to the school assembly. I was appointed the house captain in my high school. This required me to speak before groups quite often. I stuttered a few times but this was nothing compared to my earlier attempts where I could hardly complete a sentence before giving up in despair.

Since then life has changed drastically and my social life suddenly brightened. I was no longer self conscious as I kept improving with each passing day. I tutored for 2 years during my high school days to support my education. I was the coordinator of Public and Correspondence department during my college days. I have taken training courses and have initiated Toastmasters club at the college.
It always feels good to recognize that I have conquered stammering, the biggest impediment in my life’s progress and being resourceful enough to finance my own education right from secondary education.

Over the years, this has taught me invaluable lessons on life and living. My stammering was natural but my efforts weren’t - I developed a self–belief that with the strength of my soul I can overcome odds and all life required of me was to “do my best” and keep “striving” till the goal is reached.

It doesn’t matter if I fail once or twice and I will redouble my efforts the next time round.