The lights dimmed in the hotel ballroom. Several hundred people, including myself, waited for the surprise announcement.
We were in Baltimore in 2015 for the annual convention of the National Stuttering Association (NSA). It was an emotional weekend, as it always is when stutterers gather en masse. These conventions are the rare time when we are in the majority. At home, we wonder how listeners will react to our speech, with its long silences, guttural fillers, and randomly repeated words and syllables. We brace for impatience or even mockery. Here, we set the pace of the conversation. No one finishes our sentences. No one laughs nervously or breaks eye contact. We feel temporarily, blessedly normal, unified and refueled for the return to daily life.