Kelly Severseike is an AIS client who a writer, blogger and poet. Kelly shared with us her poem "Before I Say Hello" in honor of National Stuttering Awareness Week. "Before I Say Hello" speaks to the uncertainties of stuttering and the power that comes from owning and speaking in her own voice. We applaud Kelly for her courage and thank her for writing such beautiful words.
Before I say hello,
I acknowledge
to myself
what will happen.
I will stutter.
Sometime throughout
the string of words
that will flow
out of my mouth,
there will be a bump.
It’s inevitable.
This is okay.
A bump
or two
of three
won’t kill my flow.
A big bump
that causes me
to use a trick
won’t stop me
from speaking.
What’s important
is that I share
my thoughts.
I speak for
my voice,
my voice
does not
speak for me.
I continue to learn
how to navigate
the strong waters
when there’s an uptick
in my stutter.
How I approach
conversations has shifted.
I have gained
an awareness
I never could
have predicted.
I still say
what I want
but I may not
ramble on the way
I once did
when I was comfortable
with the stutter I knew.
For things have shifted
and that’s okay,
It’s apart of stuttering,
nothing is certain.
If you enjoyed this make sure to read Kelly's piece on "What Stuttering Means to Me", published on May 9th in honor of National Stuttering Awareness Day. As well, you can explore more of Kelly's poetry and her writings at kellyseverseike.com.
To learn more about National Stuttering Awareness Week and exciting events at AIS, check out this blogpost on our website.
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The American Institute for Stuttering is a leading non-profit organization whose primary mission is to provide universally affordable, state-of-the-art speech therapy to people of all ages who stutter, guidance to their families, and much-needed clinical training to speech professionals wishing to gain expertise in stuttering. Offices are located in New York, NY and Atlanta, GA, and services are also available Online. Our mission extends to advancing public and scholarly understanding of this often misunderstood disorder
