Ok, I just moved back to California. I will explain all the details later. For now, enjoy this video of me being interviewed briefly, and me interviewing Cashis, a very well-known rapper from Shady Records/Interscope. See if you can spot my stuttering…it won’t be hard.
I’ll be coming back soon 🙂
– DDDmitriy
If anyone has not seen this yet…WATCH IT NOW. This is a good 5-6 minute on ABC about stuttering featuring Dr. Phil Schneider and one of his past students, Michael.
This is one of those segments of stuttering that does not focus on the miracle cures but a different way of approaching it.
ABC won’t let me embed it for some reason but here is the clip. Enjoy!
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4593755
-Dmitriy
Dmitriy here!
I got back to my part-time job at the end of March. To refresh a little bit, I deliver pizza and I had been taking a hiatus because I had heel surgery in mid-January, and I was taking time off to kind of gather my current status after my mom passed away. Since I have been back I have been working a lot again. My car smells like pizza again and I am back driving on poorly maintained roads. Whoopeee! It is a good job though, especially for my speech. If only I had a camera crew to follow me around and show how much I stutter haha. On occasion I do slip in some management techniques into my conversations with customers. A lot of the time, my secondaries just come out in a flash. You know what though? It feels great! Not only am I showing people that I do not care about my stuttering (in a good way I mean, not a careless way), but I am also making them wonder about it. For people to understand what stutterers go through, they (people) have to being wondering about.
Now, yes I do have people who smirk, laugh, be rude, feel awkward, and etc around me when I stutter but that rarely happens and when it does, I react non-emotionally. Personally, it is surreal that I have conditioned myself to react like that because when I was younger I was always very sensitive to peoples reactions about my stuttering. I even had situations where I had to call up customers. Honestly, that is kind of scary at times because you are calling a stranger who might think you are faking, prank calling, etc. But then I think to myself “oh well.” Whatever happens, happens :). Surprisingly all the calls I have mad at work, I have only been hung up once and that was on the first try.
So if you are at work and have nervous speech situation, just go for it. I don’t know who says this quote, but if you want something you never had, you must do something you never have. If you want people to understand, you have to reach out first and show them you are ok about your stuttering!
I am off to work now, so talk ya’ll later! If anybody has any speaking situations at work that they had gone through, please share them 🙂
-DDDmitriy
Hey everyone,  It has been a while since my last post. I just wanted to reintroduce myself and let everyone know that in the coming months I will be posting more. My name is Alex and I have stuttered since I began to talk. I was added to this blog by Dmitriy, who has been a close friend of mine for a few years now. I am looking forward to sharing more of my stuttering experiences in the coming while. For our blog readers, this Summer Semester I am taking a public speaking class which is required for college in Florida. Has anyone taken or will be taking a speech class? If so, what helped you get thorough it with the least amount of nerves, etc? Looking forward to hearing responses from everyone. Alex.Â
Its been a while since I last wrote my post, which was after my mother passed away very late December. I have been taking the time to just kind of let it soak in. There is a lot of things that I feel right now that would take pages to explain and I am not sure if it would even make sense. Let me give you a quick few updates on what has been going on with me:
– 2 weeks after my mom passed away, I had bone heel surgery for my right surgery because of a bone cyst. Turns out it was a benign tumor. Yikes! Scary stuff. I was on crutches for a month, going to school on them, which was my first time! They give you a good work out that’s for sure.
– I have been taking time off from my part-time job delivering pizza. BUT! My freelance graphics business has been booming so that has been keeping me busy. I mainly make myspace layouts but will be expanding into websites.
– After my mom passed away I decided that it is best to move back to San Diego with my dad. My sister, cousins, and my close friends live there and the only reason my mom, dad, and I moved to Texas was because of my mom’s job. We moved to a great town that is growing rapidly. Living here is great, but it just does not feel right that my mom won’t see it grow.
– My stuttering has not been so much present in the last 2-3 months. Of course I still stutter up a storm! But it just has not been my worry at all. What has been a worry is life! I recently did some interviews with future SLP grad students, and it felt great to tell them about my experiences and they came away with a lot more knowledge than they would get in class. My new semester began at college in January. All classes know I stutter, and speak up at least a couple times a week in different classes (I’ll be speaking more about that in future posts! ;)).
So this is just a quick look at what has been going on in my life. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. I might have lost the closest person in my world physically, but I have gained a permanent guardian angel 🙂
I am off to San Diego for spring break, so I will try to get back to posting more after I come back! Have a great spring break everyone!
-DDDmitriy
Hey everyone,
Sorry it has been a while since the last time I posted. Things have been busy and all lately so I havent gotten a chance to come on and post as much as I would have liked. Dmitiry, as you very well know your Family is in my prayers and I wish you all the best. I will be posting as new events come up. I hope everyone had a wonderful 2007 and an even better 2008! Happy New Year!
Alex.
On January 26th, 2007, my mother passed away. She had been struggling with cancer for the last four years and last night she finally found peace. She was an amazing, beautiful, brave, kind, [and so much more!] woman. She has influenced my life so much that I come as a reflection of her. She will be greatly missed by family and friends. For me, she was one of the most important people in my life. I could always talk to her about anything and look to her for guidance. I know that she is physically gone, but she will always live on inside me and around me. Right now, I am in a surreal state and will probably be for a while. It will feel weird coming home from school and not seeing her or hearing her call my name, or calling her daily when I am traveling somewhere. She achieved the American dream in only a few years after my family and I moved to America from Ukraine. I seek to do the same, achieve the American dream that many achieve to admire.
That is why I am going to be taking a break from writing posts on this blog. Also, I am comfortable with my stuttering at this point that there are no “crazy” stories going on. I am hoping that the other half of this blog, Alex, will write some posts about his stuttering and what’s going on.
So today was my last day of speech class. I had a final and I got a pretty solid B for the semester. Overall, I am really happy with how this class turned out. You can see this post and this post for some of experiences in it. I gave a good number of presentations throughout the semester, and each presentation was better than the previous out. Heck, on my last one, I was even within my time limit 😛 The reason I enjoyed this class was because I made it a commitment to be just like everyone else. My stuttering was a factor, but not in the sense that it was holding me back. Like Nike says, “Just Do It”
So when you are in a new environment or situation, and afraid/shy to let out your stuttering, then “JUST DO IT!” You never know how it can turn out compared to how you imagine it will turn out!
Anyone got similar stories to share?
-DDDmitriy
So last night, I finally had my first real rude situation at work (Note: laughing at me doesn’t count :P). I’ve been delivering pizza since late September and I was beginning to wonder, why is practically everyone so nice here? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like dealing with rude people all the time, but hey, it’s bound to happen. So when it does, I wont be so “oh my gosh what was that!”
On one of my deliveries last night, I would say it was around ten pm. I made a delivery to a couple of kid a little younger than me. They were playing pool in their garage; As I went up to them, one of the kids asked me for the price and I began to stutter, as well do my head jerking. A couple of kids smiled and immediately turned around and began laughing. The kid who I was telling the price to kept saying the wrong price on purpose, with a smile on his face. “$7.86?” “$10.86?” The price was $17.86. He gave me the tip and I walked away with no sweat on my face, no redness, no queasy stomach. Just a smile.
Overall, the point is. If I would said something back, it would have been more awkward than it already was. For them of course. I was feeling fine the whole time and I am beginning to react less and less to how people react to my stuttering. It is a good feeling to have, but it has taken me over two years to come to this point. Dealing with rude people at work, reacting the wrong way, and dealing with life in general has provided me bits of pieces to further “bulletproof” myself against rude people, clueless people, etc. I have nothing against them as I did before.
Honestly, and you’ll think I am weird for this, but I enjoy dealing with situations like the one I just talked about. It widens my perspective and my understanding of all types of people.
Happy Holidays!
-DDDmitriy
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