In view of Stuttering Awareness Day (Oct 22), tell your story.

In view of Stuttering Awareness Day (Oct 22), tell your story. My story: I have stuttered since I could remember, mine is rather pronounced but not severe. I cannot hide it but I have managed with it. I have been for therapy and have had some improvement but it is a rocky ride. Certain situations are more difficult than others. Meeting new people, or trying to talk to the girl I like. I often still have internal struggles because of my stutter. Still have not made peace with it. Feeling of shame, guilt and sadness engulf me sometimes and it is honestly hard to deal with. Once, I broke down it public because I have over 40 people laughing at me when I was trying to give a speech. However, I am happy to say that as much as I can I have prevented it from affecting me too much. I even won a prize during a debate in secondary school thanks to my content. I was conscripted into the army when I was 18 and my stutter definitely worsened there. The army is not exactly the most forgiving of places and some instances were definitely harrowing (throwing a grenade and having to shout and warn people to duck) I even got punished once, because my superior thought I was faking it and trying to fool around. Also, everyone thought I was scared and were giving me the " it is in your head," "talk slower," or "breathe easy." speech. And I had to give each of them a mini speech (yeah I did it) on what stuttering is and how it affects someone. Not sure that all of them understood though. Now I am 20 and going to enter university soon and honestly am quite nervous about it. Enough of that, I also have other parts to my being. I like to run, took it up for weight loss and fell in love with it. I used to play tennis but I am not really good at it. I love One Piece and read it voraciously. And I love to read in general. And I love watching movies. I draw all the time, but honestly it looks like the work of a five year old.