May 24th, 2017

Post date: Aug 29, 2017 5:18:21 PM

Good day, fellow NSA members!

I apologize for the delayed update.

Despite what you may be thinking, we did in fact gather at Inna Kogan's apartments in Auburn on May 24th for a great, albeit small, NSA meeting.

Inna and I had a great visit sitting at her kitchen table overlooking the Androscoggin River. Inna mused that there is a freedom to speaking with other people who stutter and I agree wholeheartedly. 

We discussed life and family, professions and adventures. Inna always managed to bring my conversational tangents back to speech and communication. We discussed verbal as well as non-verbal communication and how so much of what is communicated has nothing to do with how we speak. Body language and expression play pivotal roles in what we convey to each other. Language came up as well; Inna speaks Russian and is interested in languages.  We discussed how age and life experiences can close us off to the "openness" we once had in childhood innocence and how adults tend to rely more on verbal communication than children do.  Even children who do not speak the same language manage to make connections with each other and speech is not always the most important commonality.

As the conversation progressed, Inna told me she has been in contact with a man who "manages" his stutter in a very interesting way. She explained that he stopped trying to achieve fluency and began a journey to simply "like" the way he spoke. He found a speaker to which he enjoyed listening and decided to mirror his tone, cadence and elocution. He thought it pleasant to the ear and simply wanted his speech to instill that feeling in others. What an unusual concept, but a wonderful one.  May we all strive to, at the very least, like our voices.

It may seem like we talked for hours, but you get two NSA'ers in a room and you CANNOT shut them up... nor would you want to. Plus, when you are speaking with Inna Kogan time just flies. 

I have to add here that Inna is a fascinating and insightful woman and I count myself fortunate to have met and had the chance to converse with her. Thank you, NSA.

I am grateful to my stutter for bringing you all into my life.

As always, if you stutter, you are not alone.

Natalie