When I was a young girl at school and we were asked to talk in front of the classroom, I was absolutely terrified: because at that time, I was not able to speak very well.

Weird sounds escaped from my mouth because I could not speak properly, and the kids at school would constantly make fun of me. This made standing up in front of a full classroom extremely scary. I never wanted to do this, but I was forced to and had no choice. The day I was asked to share a story with the other kids in my classroom was the worst day of my life, and I was bullied constantly thereafter due to the way I spoke. From that point forward, I never forgot how it felt to be treated this way and thus avoided standing up in front of people—instead choosing to hide behind people or retreat to the back of the room. This made it difficult (or even impossible!) for me to learn anything or engage with anyone.

Instead of speaking, lip-reading was my first communication and was at one point the only way I could understand what other people were trying to tell me. It wasn’t until years later that I set out to make my dreams come true. My very first goal? Learning to speak. That’s right—I didn’t begin speaking until my adult life.

I found a good speech therapist who was wonderful. Learning to speak was very, very, very challenging. It is hard to put into words how difficult this was. There were so many times I wanted to give up—but thankfully I never did. I was determined to make my dream come true.

I had to push myself. Working with my speech therapist, we started off with baby words and learning from pictures. For example, the speech therapist would hold up a picture of a ‘dog’ and ask me to name what was pictured. She did this for every word I needed to learn. It took me six months as an adult to learn one word and so many more to put words into sentences (and eventually speak them out loud and understand them). There was so much work involved.

When I was finally able to pronounce a word properly, I got so excited, I would cry happy tears. The joy that came with the ability to clearly pronounce a word and sentences meant so much to me. At the end of each month, the speech therapist would give me a test. Though I experienced so many failing ‘grades’ (if you will), I pushed on.

There was one specific test I am forever grateful for. One day, my therapist brought in a ‘helper’ and asked me to communicate with this person just like I would if I was out and about in the world. This was not easy for me since I am a shy person. I failed in doing this on many occasions and became frustrated: finding it difficult to understand what the person was saying to me and what it meant. However, I knew how important it was for me to continue working on this test every week until I achieved successful communication.

It took about a year for me to achieve this goal. Wow—what an experience! For my exam, I was challenged to speak to at least five people: communicating back and forth and fully understanding what they were saying. The results were amazing, and I finally passed the test. Needless to say, it was an extremely emotional moment for me.

The next day, I was asked to speak in front of 100 people. This was a huge opportunity for me, yet I was terrified. My mentor at the time grabbed my hand. He said, “Ronni, you can do this.” And I did! Wow—that was an experience and one that helped me overcome my fear of speaking in front of people. When I left the stage, everyone was so friendly and encouraging.

Now, I love speaking and often cannot stop talking. I’m a chatterbox!