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Introduction/Personal Epiphany Hi everyone, My name is David and I’ve been following this subreddit for some time. Like many of us, I have had a stutter since I could remember. In elementary school, I would get extremely nervous when reading out loud that I would not be able to comprehend what I was reading. Throughout the years, I have gotten more comfortable with my stutter and just let it happen without thinking about how embarrassing it is but I never really got over introducing myself by name because of the way people would laugh and ask, “are you sure? Did you forget your name?”. Eventually, I would explain my speech and they would apologize for the insensitivity. Out of every 100 introductions, 99 of them were just like this (I recently had 1 interaction where the person didn’t laugh and was patient and I literally almost cried at a party). Because of this, I became afraid of introducing myself and I even started going by a nickname to make it easier but also confusing for the people close to me. But just a couple of weeks ago, I had this epiphany. I started thinking, it’s unfair to myself that I keep going through this traumatic experience every time I meet someone new. So I started being up front about it. Before introducing myself, I say, Hi, I have a speech impediment so it might take me a second to say my name, my name is…” and no matter how long it took, most people will wait patiently for me to say my name. Maybe everyone already does this or maybe this will help others who are feeling triggered by the thought of introducing themselves. I can’t say the nervous feeling has completely gone away but this has helped my gain back some much needed confidence when out in public. I am currently 33 years old and it has taken me this long to start feeling comfortable introducing myself. I am thankful I figured this part out. Cheers!