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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 16 Oct 2004
Time: 20:54:44 -0500
Remote Name: 24.1.53.111
Hi Shulamith, You asked: "I was wondering why you felt that your stuttering meant a lot to other people when you were in high school. Was it because of the way that you were treated, or was it simply because of how you felt that you must have sounded to others?" My answer is really neither. It was a simple extension of the logic "It was EXTREMELY important to ME, therefore it MUST be important to everyone else." It turns out that I could not have been more wrong! ------------------- You also said: "It seems that you were quite surprised when your classmates were SO NICE at the reunion..." I was actually more amazed by the fact that they hardly remembered me as the "boy who stuttered" than I was at them being so nice. The "being so nice" part really didn't have much to do with stuttering but rather it had to do with just getting older. <grin> According to my brother-in-law (we were best buds in high school long before I even met his little sister who was to become my wife!), he went to our 10th reunion and he reported that a lot of people were there more to impress everyone with their own importance than anything else. (I'm CEO of MY company. What company are you CEO of? Oh, only a VP? Too bad..." - Gag!) So it was with some trepidation that I even went to our 25th. But when I got there, I found everyone FAR more interested in family and good memories than they were trying to impress anyone with their own importance. The cheerleaders and the jocks who would never give me the time of day in high school (I was pretty much a geek then) welcomed me into their conversations without exception. "Hi Russ! Great to see you again! How ya doing? ..." <smiles all around> It was really a wonderful time. The "in crowd" had totally disappeared and everyone just seemed to love seeing everyone else. It was really awesome. I hope you have the same experience at your 25th reunion. And just for the record, it keeps on getting better, even though our ranks are sadly thinning. My 50th reunion will be my next one in 2008 and I can't wait to see everyone again! ------------------- Good question, Shulamith. I hope you are enjoying the conference. Good luck in school! ------------------- Russ, RussHicks@mail.com, Dallas, Texas, 972-881-1451 home, 972-489-6169 cell, My home page: http://www.RussHicks.com NSA home page: http://www.WeStutter.org