How Will I Ever Stop Stuttering?

She was wonderstruck by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between misfortune — living with stuttering (PWS) — and her dreams of fluency (PWSS) was now reaching the finish line. She also knew that “Every finish line is the beginning of a new race,” this time on a fluent road — plausibly! Yay!! She had met the most altruistic and benevolent Lee Lovett via Facebook, the founder of a supportive speech therapy community. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg for making this celestial connection possible.

Lee opened a new chapter of “HOPE” in her strained life and changed her view of stuttering, showing her how it could be a blessing in disguise. She consistently used the speech tools every time she spoke — and it worked! Within a week, she blossomed into a nightingale — one of the fastest people to reach fluency. Sometimes she still experienced stutter threats and relapsed. Why? Because she thought she was beyond the process — she forgot to use the speech tools every time. The rest was darkness. Damn it! She sighed, “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?”

She felt the world crumble around her; her entire life story written in bleeding, water-soaked ink. But after the flood, one chapter kept lingering in her mind — the chapter of “HOPE.”

Then she remembered her Skype conversations with Lee Lovett, and the whole truth unfolded before her moist eyes. She had not practiced affirmations and mind training regularly — and she forgot to take control of her speech consistently.

As a wise man, Javier Valcazar Cortazar, once said,

“Speech tools aren’t difficult — the difficult part is taking control of your speech.”

The realization hit her hard. She began practicing affirmations and mind training twice daily and resolved not to force words. The result? She witnessed drastic improvement in her speech. Now, whenever she wonders, “How will I ever get out of this labyrinth?” an arrow leads her to Javier’s margin note, written in a thunderbolt-like, lightning-struck cursive:

“Take control of your speech — straight and fast!”