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Perseverance - go for your dreams. Hello everyone! This is actually my first post here! Anyways, my name is Clayton and I’ve had a stutter since 6th grade. I thought I’d share a story of mine to help you guys with your stutter. I’ve stuttered for a long time, and I’ve been to speech classes since 7th grade, they’ve helped a little but my stutter is not gone and still is very much present. As a growing teen in both middle and High school I’ve had trouble especially with public speaking. I’d get up in front of class and stutter and I’d get laughing from the rest of the audience. It didn’t feel good - I always laughed it off on the outside but on the inside I felt awful. I felt like I was incapable of speaking clear, I realized I’d never be able to do another presentation. It wasn’t a good time for me. I’d have major anxiety before each presentation or even reading a sentence to the class... all because of my stutter. But I persevered. I felt ashamed and stupid. Ashamed that other people had to wait for me to get something out, stupid that I couldn’t control it. I started to doubt my dreams of being a pilot, which has always been something I’ve wanted to do - I’ve been in love with aviation since I was two. I had dark thoughts around this time. Through the dark times I persevered. It was junior year that things got better. I had to give a speech infront of class; and the topic was stuttering. Amazingly, talking openly about it... felt good, talking to my classmates the struggles I go through, and how I dealt with it. The class cheered for me at the end, and this brought up my confidence ten fold. This is when things turned around, presentations were scary still, but weren’t as bad for me anxiety wise, however I still had my stutter. This brings me to senior year to the present. I had the opportunity to start flight training at low cost. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up. I agreed, but my fear came back. Stuttering while flying. The same fear that kept me from doing this years ago. This wasn’t something I thought I could persevere with. I was even tempted to back off of this offer and train at an airport with no tower, but that didn’t happen due to the flight school closing there. But I decided to give it ago. I then took my first training session, and when asked I give a transmission to the tower, my heart was pounding, I was so scared of messing up on a live frequency. I spoke perfectly. I was shocked, I couldn’t believe that I spoke clear. This fear I had was for nothing, and I let it stop me? I kept on with training. Yes I stuttered with the tower, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot where I just wanted to not go up flying because I felt embarrassed, but I put back the perseverance I had throughout school and applied it here. I stutter, I move on and fly. At no times have I been laughed at or yelled at from any airport official or instructor while stuttering, this helped me realize maybe it’s not all that bad. Finally the present. I currently have around 50 hours of flying time - and I’m currently studying to pass my FAA checkride. I’m living my dream. I’m also currently processing into the United States Air Force to be an Airman. I do have worries about stuttering, but I realize all I have to do is persevere and I can do it. In all, go for your dreams. What ever they might be; do NOT let this stutter stop you. Persevere. Persevere. And also do not let fear stop you either. Achieve your dream because you can do anything you put your mind to. If you have doubts or dark times, persevere. We don’t have a lot of time to not be happy. That’s why one must persevere and face our fears to keep going despite having a stutter. Keep going and don’t stop. Take every opportunity you can. You can do this.