Represented

My week has just been dramatically improved by the newest Ted Talk.

On the TedSydney stage stood a young woman in leather, clutching her cellphone, facing an audience of hundreds.  This woman, Megan Washington, slowly but surely drove through her speech.

I have a problem.  It’s not the worst thing in the world, I’m fine, I’m not on fire.  I know that other people in the world have far worse things to deal with but for me…I have a stutter.

Speech impediments.  She covers it all.  How speech impediments are expected to be “grown out of,” never associated with a capable adult.  How the embarrassment and fear of tripping over a word forces us to develop avoidance tactics for problematic sounds.  I’ve experienced a different kind of impediment, where I struggle producing R and words that just have Rs in them.  Rhotacism doesn’t interrupt fluency as noticeably as stuttering does, but it sort of sucks sounding like Elmer Fudd half the time.  I constantly avoided words with R, often reading ahead during English classes to ensure the absence of problematic words before volunteering to read aloud.  And, like Megan, I’ve also noticed my impediment disappear when I sang, but my voice is not nearly as sweet as hers.  Instead, I’ve turned to writing where I can always be as clear and coherent as I want to be without the awkward fumble of lips and tongue.