Speech Impediment No Impediment to Speaking Success - HugSpeak

In this post, high school senior Wes Neely shares how public speaking helped him come to terms with a life-long speech impediment.?

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Hello. My name is Wes. I am former Jedi apprentice of the Speech Master Mrs. Lauren Hug in the Austin Sector.

For the purpose of this writing there are two things that you must absolutely know about me. The first is that I am the most mediocre speech competitor in the history of speech. The second is that I have a nasty speech impediment.

Okay so it?s pretty obvious which one of these is not actually true. The second one, of course, because my speech impediment is actually not nasty; in fact it?s the opposite of nasty, my speech impediment is 100% beautiful.

Life with a Speech Impediment

I will start with a brief history of my entire existence of a human being. From the moment I was born I had trouble saying my R?s. Actually, it was more around the time I turned 18 months old because I never really spoke before that.? This broke my family apart and pitted everyone against each other. Some people thought it was adorable and some people wanted it fixed right away.

My mother belonged in the latter group, so at the ripe age of five I started going to speech therapy. For every day of my summer I went to that cold dark room and was tortured into saying my R?s correctly.

It did not work.

Then absolutely nothing else happened in my life until 7^th grade when I decided to be in a school production. I was cast as a character that had a total of 4 lines in the entire play. However, my disability had not gone away over the years. I was still the dorky little kid who said his R?s like W?s.

Long story short I was forced into another year of speech therapy during 7^th grade in order to fix my speech problem for a play that was sure to go down in history as the best production ever. When the final dress rehearsal was taking place, just a week before the competition, I got fired from my job and some girl I hardly knew took my place.

My speech impediment did not get better.

I distinctly remember my drama teacher hating my speech impediment, and I knew that she was right. I knew that I would never be able to do a play or act because of my unfortunate birth defect.

Rejecting Impediments

So I set out and did the only logical thing for a now 8^th grader to do. I joined the competitive speech team for my school. I competed on the speech circuit for five long years, and after all that time I feel that I finally made peace with my speech impediment. Not that it went away mind you; no it did not in the slightest leave my lips.

However, I realized something about my speech impediment. It was the biggest attention magnet in the history of the world. I almost felt compelled to wear a name badge that read, ?Wes: Yes I talk funny.? Every single round, an overly nice judge or a competitor would ask me, ?Are you from Australia?? or ?Are you from England? or ?Are you from? (pick any country in the world)??

I eventually stopped caring about people asking me, and I started answering with whatever I felt like. ?Yes, yes, I am from Australia.? (Pro Tip: Chicks dig Australian guys).

Basically, this speech impediment became my greatest ally. If I wasn?t good at speech to begin with at least I would be remembered as ?that guy with the funny voice?.

For five years I competed on the competitive speech circuit. This is where I label myself the most average speech kid of all time. Despite everything that was working against me, my voice, my preparation, or just my own confidence I managed to do fairly well. Now, I was no speech stud by any means but I did hold my own in most rounds and definitely was memorable. I competed in eight different events over my career and managed to advance in every single one of them at least once.

My 7^th grade drama teacher never thought I would be able to defeat my speech impediment, and though I never took home any first place trophies, my room is cluttered with 6^th through 2^nd place trophies and medals.

Lessons Learned

Through competitive speech I realized the importance of a couple key things that generally work out in life.

First, no matter what it is in life, if you go at it with a stupidly ignorant attitude, you will find success in some shape or form. Was I built to be a speech kid? Absolutely not, my posture was bad, my work ethic terrible, and my voice was built more for laughs than actual debate. However I realized that if you want something bad enough, and if you focus on it enough then eventually the fruit of your efforts will show.

Second, I realized the importance of being okay with not being ?the best?. If you hold yourself to anyone else?s expectations, you are bound to fail in one way or another. I realized that no matter what I did to prepare for an event, the judging was out of my hands, and if a judge thought I did not speak professionally enough or that I did not look the part, then what could I do? I knew for a fact that I would never be a great speaker just perhaps because of my voice, but I realized I didn?t need trophies that said ?You?re a Winner!? I had trophies that said I was as good as I could have been.

Finally, and most importantly to me, having this speech impediment showed me how to be comfortable with myself. I will admit it hurt the first dozen times someone asked me why I talked funny. But I realized through public speaking that it does not matter what I sound like or what place I get. I was doing something I enjoyed, and I did it without letting others get in my way. Did people laugh at me sometimes about my poor performance along with my silly speech voice? Probably. Does it matter to me that they did? Absolutely not.

Embracing Uniqueness

Through speech I was able to realize that I am who I am and no amount of speech therapy is going to change me, metaphorically or physically. Through speech (and being continually pointed out as that kid with the voice) I realized that it is not wrong to break the mold and be different. I might have worn the same style suit as everyone else, but I was the only one who talked my talk.

Did my speech impediment hurt my speech career? Undoubtedly it did. Would I trade my voice for a shelf full of first place medals? Not ever.

Having a speech impediment sucks, but it should never be used as an excuse to not try something you love and to not give it your all.

I remember the teacher who kicked me out of my four line role, and when I remember that moment I start to laugh, because really, the joke?s on her. Despite my goofy voice I managed to score the leading role in our school spring performance my junior year.

So much for never being able to do what I love.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:?Wes Neely is a high school senior, who, in addition to participating in theater and competitive speech, is a StarCraft expert, master popcorn maker, and soccer coach.?

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