okay so i mentioned my speech impediment like a little while ago briefly, but i had to talk about it for a project in my one class and its been on my mind A LOT since then...
so here’s a thread about it and my thoughts/struggles

so i have rhotacism, and if you dont know what that is or too lazy to look it up, basically its difficult for me to pronounce R’s
i grew up with a therapist who came to my house weekly (?) for a little while and then in 1st grade i would be excused to go to a class in school
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i ended up being able to fix most of it (id say like 90%) but it still pops up here and there when i speak...
it sucks
people used to think i was british for some odd reason when they first met me (i think) because of it
and like i said, it still shows up sometimes when i talk
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now, i talk really fast and tend to mumble and i think i do that kinda to make it less known i struggle with my R’s
so for example, ill be talking and instead of saying, idk “gatorade” it’ll just come out as “gatowade” without hesitation or meaning to do so
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i get extremely embarrassed and people tend to mock me when that happens in a conversation (even if its a split second!) by like repeating what i said or just laughing (which is frustrating and upsetting)
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i also tend to fuck up some word pairings, one in particular which is always a pain in the ass is “paper towels”
i will most likely always say “papel towers” for some reason
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like i genuinely struggle with transitioning from the R to an L
it also causes me to stutter in some cases (not alot)
if im talking and catch myself about to screw up a word or pronunciation, i stutter to try not to and sometimes takes me a while to get it out in that case
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idk i think thats most of it.
idk why i made this thread. i think i just realized how much of an impact this little thing has made on my life
i also think its a reason why i want to change my major to speech pathology so i can help kids get past that step
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(my sister also encouraged me to do it but thats besides the point)
i think i’ll always remember the two people who helped me with my speech and i want to be that person for other kids whether they remember me or not and to let them know it won’t hold them back