I was asked by The Indian Stammering Association, TISA, to give a talk about acceptance and stuttering. I put down a few hundred words and had some specific ideas about stuttering and acceptance. And now, given that National Stuttering Awareness Day is only three weeks away, I thought I’d share a few bullet points and then expand on them as the days go on.

(Keep in mind that I’ve promised things before during the month of October, and I’ve not done them. Hopefully this will be very different since I’ve got a lot of the notes down, and I’m off next week as I transition to a new job. Which, of course, is a whole other discussion and series (hopefully, again) of posts.)

So here are the eight things that I said during the talk that I’ve accepted. I’m sure over the next few months I’ll realize a few more, consolidate some of these, and then have a new list. But until then, here we go:

• I have accepted that there is no cure for stuttering.

• I have accepted that I am not perfect.

• I have accepted that I can still communicate when I am not fluent.

• I have accepted that stuttering is unpredictable.

• I have accepted that there are tools and techniques to use when I feel like I’m having a bad day.

• I have accepted that some people will not react to my stuttering in a positive way.

• I have accepted that I do not know what others are thinking, and that they may not know what I am thinking.

• Lastly, I have accepted that stuttering is not all of who I am.

Over the next few days I’ll expand on each of these ideas. What they mean to me, and the work I put in to get to this point of acceptance.