Highlighting the I in difference
SUMMER Summer is here with all its green, Making such a relaxing scene. Mixed with the calming sky so blue, Makes a wonderful day ’tis true. Summer is what I really like, Great to walk or taking a hike. All of summer with its beauty, Sights and sounds so very lovely. The sparkling lake and […]
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In today’s blog, we are going to talk about The Joe Rogan Experience podcast with Kevin Hart on Youtube. I haven’t reviewed any podcasts on the page before as I have only just started to listen to them but they are something that I want to do more of. The Joe Rogan Experience is a series of podcasts, created by comedian Joe Rogan, that is released on his Youtube channel – PowerfulJRE, https://www.youtube.com/user/PowerfulJRE. Each podcast has its own special guest and these can vary from Russel Brand to Elon Musk. The content in each blog is always different but they involve topics like social media, the future, A.I, positivity and many more.
I got the idea for this blog from two of my good mates, Will Morris and Lewis Burden. I had never considered listening to any podcasts before they told me about them and now I’ve started, I can’t stop!
I loved listening to the podcast and it made me look at Kevin Hart in a completely different way. The ambition that he brings to life and the motivation he has in life is truly inspirational. The positive mindset that Kevin Hart has and how he adapts it to life, in general, is a pleasure to listen too and it made me think what can’t we do if we put our minds to something with a positive mindset?
Before I go into the podcast itself I do have to give a quick disclaimer. There is some Adult language used in the podcast. The swear words and other sometimes frowned upon phrases are not used in a derogatory way, however, if you can see past them and really appreciate the core message that the podcast is saying then it will be a real pleasure to watch.
Now the podcast is a fairly long watch, reaching just over the 2-hour mark. There is a lot of different content discussed in the podcast which could make this blog massive. After planning this through though I don’t want the blog to be too long, as that waters down the actual message that the blog is trying to bring.
The way that I’ve decided to tackle it is that I am going to discuss some of the parts that I think are really important here, then if people want to discuss parts further we can do that in the comments on this blog, on our Facebook page or privately through emails/messages.
The first part of the podcast that I want to focus on is how social media is impacting society. Kevin and Joe talk about social media in the way that we live our lives now directly linked with social media. What they mean by this is that some people do things now simply because it will get more likes/attention online, not because they actually want to do it. The focus that we as people have on social media now is really worrying. People go through lives with their cameras on just in case they miss filming something, instead of actually appreciating it in real life for what it is.
This somewhat infatuation we have with social media has dramatically affected how we communicate with other people too. This change in communication does not only apply to how we communicate with each other, but it affects how we communicate with famous people/celebrities. Take a moment to think about what it would be like meeting a celebrity lets say around 10-15 years ago. You would go up to them ask them for an autograph and then talk to them for a little bit. Nowadays as soon as people see a celebrity they instantly put a camera in their face and demand a selfie.
It almost seems like now we see celebrities more like an online attention generator than actual people. Kevin talks about how personally he would much prefer it if people came up to him and talked to him like he was a genuine person, as that is exactly what he is.
Celebrities are not just reasons for people to press a like button on Facebook or like a picture on Instagram, they are actual people. This is not meant to be shaming anyone who does just go up to celebrities just for a photo, it is meant to make you think. Instead of automatically asking for a photo why not go up to them and have a conversation first then ask for a photo after? I think that they will be much more likely to take a photo with you if you’ve treated them like actual people.
The second major part of the podcast that I want to talk about is when Joe and Kevin talk about positivity. One of the lines that Kevin says in this part is “You’re your biggest enemy”, it is one of the best lines in the whole podcast. People nowadays do unfortunately focus more on the negatives in life rather than the positives.
It is almost like people now link positivity to popularity which is absurd but as Kevin says ” it’s not cool to be positive”.. On this page, I always talk about how being different is a great thing but even with being different, there are a few exceptions.
Quite a few people these days are almost trying to be different to others simply to be negative or to argue with them. Those people it seems to think that being negative about something makes them “cool” and just as they say in the podcast as one person starts talking negatively about something then others will start to jump on the “negative train”.
It is much easier for people to just argue or disagree with someone rather than actually taking the time to understand what they are saying. Trying to understand a persons point of view may take a little bit longer but the knowledge you gain at the end is much better than if you simply argued with them just for the sake of it.
The last part of the podcast that I want to talk about is a link between individuality and positivity. My favourite part of the podcast is when Kevin compares life to a book. I can’t remember the line exactly but it’s something like this “Everybody is writing their own book, how good is yours going to be?”. That line there is a line you can use for just about anything. It is something that I want to dedicate a whole blog to in the future but I will discuss it a little bit here.
The basic premise behind the line is everyone writes their own story. Do you want your story to be the same as everyone else? Do you just want a plain, normal book? Or do you want to try something new? Make your book something you would be proud of.
Approach life in open arms with a positive mindset and who knows where your book will end up. It is very rare that anyone likes a book that has no plot, it’s about the story, the adventure, the risks and the outcomes. Go about life learning, you can never stop learning. The world is constantly evolving, use that to your advantage, try something new, surprise yourself!
That is all I want to talk about in today’s blog! Like I said at the start of the blog I didn’t want the blog to be too long as that waters down the message/ messages that the blog aims to give. What do you all think of today’s blog? Are you going to watch the podcast? If you have watched it what do you think? Are there any parts that I missed that you think I should have included? Let me know what you think in the comments!
A big thank you to my mates Will and Lewis for recommending this podcast, it was an amazing watch/listen! I am hoping to do a few more blogs with Will and Lewis in the future so keep an eye out! If anyone does have any ideas for future blogs then please get in touch! I’m always happy to listen to new ideas!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a great day! See you all in the next blog!
Sweeney’s Blogs
Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!
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James Sweeney
Did you know that Darth Vader’s actor had a stutter? The man behind one of Hollywoods most recognisable voices was mute for nearly eight years! These two facts alone help paint a brief insight into the pain that a stutter can cause a person. A stutter affects more than just your ability to speak, it affects you as a person.
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Today’s blog is going to be the sixth blog in the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series! In today’s blog, we are going to be taking a look at how James Earl Jones, one of Hollywoods greats, story. We are going to take a look into how his stutter has affected him growing up and how he manages his stutter when filming for films and when he is on Broadway. The man is a stutterspiration in all essence of the word, what he has done whilst having a stutter is truly amazing!
Most people often forget that James Earl Jones, the man behind the voices of Darth Vader and Mufasa, had a terrible stutter in his childhood. An article that I found in the Health section of The Daily Mail, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1255955/James-Earl-Jones-My-stutter-bad-I-barely-spoke-years.html, takes a closer look into his story. As we look into James’s story it is crucial to remember that despite having a stutter, he is still very successful in life.
The article and indeed the video above show us that growing up James felt that it was easier to remain quiet and some could say hidden to avoid being judged due to his stutter. The article points out a very interesting point. James Earl Jones, a man with one of the most recognisable voices in Hollywood was “almost mute as a child for eight years” due to his stutter. That just goes to show the inherent fear that a stutter can cause on an individual.
When talking about growing up with a stutter James talks about how he used to feel like he was “cursed”. The fear of not being able to talk tat a stutter creates truly is phenomenal. It is something that you cannot fully understand unless you actually go through it but it is something that you can begin to appreciate. Having the courage to push forward even when you cannot get the word out at times is shows a real mark of character. It is often the confidence we have in ourselves that dictates the effect that a stutter will have on our lives.
Further on in the article James talks about how “stuttering is painful”. He recalls when he had to read in Sunday school as a child and how the other children were ” falling on the floor with laughter” simply because he struggled to get the words out. This hits home quite hard for me as I was often in the same position growing up with a stutter, I remember going through Secondary school Engish classes, every time the teacher would pick someone to read I would pray to be invisible. The fear that a stutter can muster in a child is truly worrying. However, if we focus on the negatives then no change will be made. We need to look at the positives in life and in this case James’s story to see how we can help manage a stutter and live a “normal life” (whatever that means!).
Now as James mentioned above he got over a stutter using Poetry. Now poetry and other creative writing processes are very good techniques to use to help manage a stutter. I often use poetry when I am stuttering a lot as a way for me to centre myself. It gives me time to relax, think about what I want to say and then the time to actually say it.
Dictating your own work can be very very useful. If you haven’t tried the technique before I highly recommend it. If you don’t have anything to read then starting off is simple. Simply write 5-10 lines about yourself and then practise saying them out loud. Start off saying them by yourself and then as you practise more and more get other people in to listen to you. Eventually, you will be able to speak the lines without reading the paper. From this point, you start to practise reading the lines whilst also looking at people. It is a gradual process but patience is key for the endgame.
Another method that James said he uses to help manage his stutter is shouting at the empty seats before a play. Now there are quite a lot of people that use aggression as a form of managing their stutter. Personally, I haven’t used this method much in the past, I have tried it, but not for a long while. I will do a blog on it further down the line as I know Samuel L. Jackson uses it to help manage his stutter.
The last thing that I want to talk about in regards to James’s story is some final words he said at the end of the Daily Mail article. He says “When you are mute, you become a good listener – it’s all one-way.” Now even though I have not been mute I do really empathise with this statement. Now as a stutterer myself I have learned how to be a good listener. I’m not going to go into it in too much detail in this blog as I do want to do a whole blog on it in a few weeks but there is a link between someone who stutters and their listening ability. I find it quite an interesting link to learn about which is why I want to leave it for a future blog.
That’s all I want to talk about in today’s blog! What do you all think? Did you know James Earl Jones had a stutter? What do you think about the poetry method of managing a stutter? Let me know what you think!
One of the most important points that I want to leave this blog on is that a stutter shouldn’t hold you back. James Earl Jones is the prime example of this point. Granted his stutter nearly made him mute for eight years but he got past it. He didn’t let it control his life. He became the voices of Darth Vader and Mufasa with a stutter, so the question stands, what’s stopping you? Remember failure isn’t a bad thing, it’s a learning curve!
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one!
Sweeney’s Blogs
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James
People and indeed the world itself are forever evolving/changing. As times move on the way that we do things and even the way we think develops and evolves. Everything that we do has an effect on us as people and on our Mental Health as a result. As this effect happens the questions still stands: what actually is Mental Health and what actually affects it?
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Today’s blog is going to be about what Mental Health is and how we as a society need to change our approach to Mental Health. I got the idea for this blog by talking to one of my mates at work. We were catching up about the past year in university and we moved onto the topic of academic difference. Now after we finished talking I asked if I can use this for a blog and he said that he cannot see how simply the word different can make a topic link to Mental Health, this is where the idea for the blog came from. In effect, we can link anything to Mental Health which is what I will talk about in more depth later on in the blog.
Firstly we need to take a look at exactly what is Mental Health. MentalHealth.gov, https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health, describe Mental Health as “our emotional, psychological and social well-being.” They say that our Mental Health has an effect on ” how we think, feel and act” and it influences how we handle things like stress and how we make decisions. I quite like this definition as I feel like it is very close to my own.
To me, our Mental Health is who we are as people. It is how we think, how we process information, how we communicate and develop, Mental Health is us. It baffles me when people say how so many things are not related to Mental Health when in reality they are. Anything that has an effect on society, us as people and the way that we think and feel all make up what is known as our Mental Health. Nearly everything we do impacts our Mental Health and that is what we need to start thinking about. We need to get out of the loop that is Mental Health is only relevant when people are having problems as Mental Health is a constant. Even if we may not be suffering from a Mental Health condition, your Mental Health is constantly evolving and changing. The only way that change in Mental Health is actually going to happen is if we rethink what Mental health actually is and how we tackle it in day to day life.
An example that I like to refer to when talking about this ideology is the different reactions people have when they are going to work. Going to work is a topic that I don’t bring up much on the page but for this example, I think that it fits in well and is very relatable. The reaction that you give to going to work has an obvious link to whether you like your job or not. The way that you feel about your work acts as a foundation to how it impacts on your mental health, in a positive or negative way, and then it develops when we actually are going to work.
Let’s say for this example that you love the job that you are in. If you love your job then I believe it is safe to say that work makes you happy. This means that the foundation of how work impacts your Mental Health is a positive one. If you love your job then for the majority of the time you will be happy when you are leaving to go to work and you will be happy at work. This good mood that you have can correlate to a more positive Mental Health. A more positive Mental Health can link to a more positive look at work and indeed life in general. I am not saying that work determines your look on life but it does play a part.
Now we are going to look at the flip side of the coin. let’s say you hate the job you are in. Now if you hate your job then I think it is safe to say that going to work makes you unhappy. This means that the foundation of how work impacts your Mental Health is a more negative one, which is a complete opposite to the last scenario. The unhappy mood and mindset that you get going to or even thinking about work can correlate to a more negative look on life. As said above I am not saying that work determines your outlook on life but it definitely does play a part.
If going to work makes you unhappy or puts you in a bad mood then it is only natural that it is going to impact on other parts of your life. Once you get put in a bad mood it is often hard to not see everything else in that same mindset. So if you hate your job and going to work then if something else happens then you are more likely to approach it with a more negative mindset, hypothetically speaking. This is obviously the other way around if you love your job, I don’t think it is necessary to repeat the paragraph again just to flip everything.
I believe that is all I want to talk about in today’s blog! I hope that I have possibly broadened your horizons into what Mental Health actually is. Mental Health can indeed be everything and everywhere, Mental Health is us as people, it is who we are.
What do you think of today’s blog? Do you think that Mental Health can be everything or everywhere or do you have a different view? What do you define Mental Health as? Let me know what you think of the blog and your answers to the above questions in the comments on this blog or get in touch with me through the Facebook page!
Thank you all for reading!
Sweeney’s Blogs
Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!
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James
You have one, don’t you? A dream? Of course you do. We all do. Whether your dream is big or small here’s some advice on Living Your Dream. 1. You can be sure it’s a dream and not a fantasy if your dream involves serving others in some way. 2. You’re never too old to […]
via 48 Things to Remember About Living Your Dream — Self Development
How can you compare Stuttering to a printer? How can people understand a stutter if they haven’t got one themselves? How can learning about a stutter help treat it? I hope to answer these questions in today’s blog all about a Stuttering Theory I created myself.
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Today’s blog is going to be the fifth blog in the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series and is going to be about The Printer Theory, a theory that I myself created to help visualise what living with a stutter is actually like. The theory itself can be interpreted in a number of different ways so if you interpret it a different way to how I am saying it that is more than fine.
I created The Printer Theory when I was asked to describe what living with a stutter is like to a few of my University friends this year. I had rarely been asked what living with a stutter was like before going to university so I didn’t have an answer ready at the time. This is when I decided to improvise and came up with The Printer Theory. Even though the theory doesn’t cover all aspects of life with a stutter I still think that it is a good place to start.
The first part of The Printer Theory is about the type of stutter where you just cannot get the words out, no matter how hard you try. So let’s say you have a document on the computer that you want to print out. You do all the normal things such as going to options, selecting print and then waiting for the printer to print the document out. Your document starts printing and then you get a paper jam in the printer.
If you have a paper jam then sending another twenty documents to the printer will not do anything, it will just put more pressure on the CPU of the computer and will affect the interrupts happening to the computer which will slow it down. Sending more documents to the computer will do nothing to help the actual problem which is the paper jam. This can easily be related to having a conversation with a person who has a stutter. If they are stuck on a particular word then asking them 20 more questions will do nothing to help them, it will just stress them out and might even lead to them stuttering more.
To fix a paper jam in the printer you would slowly find out the problem and then try a few ways to resolve it. Forcing the paper out when you have a paper jam will not help the issue, this is the exact same as dealing with a stutter. If someone who you are having a conversation with gets stuck on a word then you definitely should not try to force them to speak, they are trying they just cannot get the words out. What you need to do is simple.
The first step to helping someone who cannot get the words out is to actually realise that they are stuck on a word. If you recognise that someone is struggling then it makes it easier for you to understand and easier for them to get over it. The next step is to try a few different solutions. The first solution I recommend is maybe rewording the question that you asked them. Usually, if a person is simply stuck on one word then if you reword the question they will not even have to try and say it. There are lots of other techniques you can try if this doesn’t work but the key is to be patient, do not rush someone with a stutter as that will help no one.
One of the next links that a stutter has to a printer is when it comes to the order of entities. When you print something out, it is printed in a set order, this is the exact same as the way we speak. If the pages were printed in a random order then we would have to spend a lot of time simply working out the order of the pages and then what they are actually trying to tell us, this works the same with how we speak. We form sentences in a way that they are easy to understand and our words are in a logical order.
Just because a printer may take a long time to print out a particular page, it doesn’t mean that you write it out to try to beat the printer. If a printer was taking a while to print something out then you would wait patiently until it was finished, this links perfectly with a stutter. If a person is taking a while to say a particular word, sentence it does not give you the right to try and speak for them or just rush them into finishing. Rushing someone to speak when they have a stutter severely lowers their self-confidence and leads them to feel more embarrassed when they do eventually stutter.
This links in well to one of the main problems I have when speaking to people when they know that I have a stutter. Most people who do not have a stutter or who haven’t been close to someone who has a stutter think that finishing sentences for people who are struggling helps them out, it actually makes us feel useless. What people don’t actually think about, and this is not a criticism to people, it is just a fact, is that when we are stuttering we are trying really hard to get the words out. If you just jump in and finish the sentence for them, even if you do it with good intentions, then it makes us feel worthless. This paragraph is not meant to be having a go at anyone it is simply explaining something that most people don’t usually think of.
As you can see from the blog above there are lots of different links you can make between a printer and a person who stutters. There are indeed a lot more links that you can find but I have explained the main ones that I wanted to talk about in this blog. If you do find anymore and want to talk them through feel free to send me a message, I’ll more than happily respond!
Thanks for reading today’s blog! What do you all think? Next time you speak to someone with a stutter try and use a few of the points that I made today. Don’t rush them, be patient and please don’t finish sentences for them. I hope you all have a great week and remember to keep Highlighting the I in Difference!
Thanks again for reading and for all of the support,
Sweeney’s Blogs
Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!
£5.00
James
We have had a lot of new readers join the page and the community recently and I believe that now is a good time to do an update post for the page in general. I know I did an update post last week but that was for the blog series that I run, today’s is going to be about the page in general.
Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!
First of all, I just wanted to say a big thank you for all the support that the blog has been getting recently. The speed in which the blog is growing still surprise me and it is excellent to see so many new readers each day. If you want to know more about me and why I write the blogs, feel free to check out the About Me page. The About Me page, https://sweeneysblog.com/about-me/, should hopefully cover all the areas on what the blog is and what we hope to achieve.
I do have a lot of ideas for where I see the blog going in the future. One of the next biggest steps that the blog is going to take is upgrading our website plan. Currently, the plan that I am using does not allow me to use plugins on the blog. Plugins are excellent tools that I believe would help take the blog to the next level. The only reason that I haven’t updated the page as of yet is that it is going to cost me around £300 a year. As I am a student living in University and the website itself doesn’t generate much income I simply cannot afford to update it in the future. In the meantime, I will do some research into what plugins would be good for the page when I can eventually afford to use them.
In terms of where the blog series are going on the page, I have started planing some of the series that I talked about in last weeks Future blog Series blog, https://sweeneysblog.com/2019/07/18/future-blog-series/, and I think that a few of them are nearly ready to start writing. I feel like the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series is going to go on for a while longer too. I am really enjoying writing the blogs for the series at the minute and they seem to be going down quite well with readers. I think that the blogs are going to remain as one blog for a series at the start of the week and one singular log at the end of the week but that may change in the future depends on how the blogs are doing. I might start doing a blog in one series at the start of the week and then one for another series at the end of the week. This is not for definite it is just speculation at this point.
For the business as a whole, I have quite a few milestones left to hit for this year. I am extremely happy with how fast the page is growing at the minute and I do hope that we surpass 5,000 total views by the end of the year. The way that I see it is that the more the blog grows, the more chance that someone who needs help from the blogs will get the chance to read them. The blogs are designed to help people so the more people that read them the better. If you know anyone who you think the blogs would help or anyone who is interested in the blog tell them to have a look. It is always nice to have new people join the community.
I am hoping to launch the second half of the business in the near future. The second half of the business is going to be me going into different organisations and business and doing talks and courses on Stuttering, Stress and Mental Health. If any of you know a business that needs courses run on any of these topics let me know. I do not want to charge much for the course just enough to keep the page running and allow me to expand it in the future.
I believe that is everything that I wanted to cover in today’s blog. I wanted to be clean with everything that I have planned for the page so thats where the inspiration for today’s blog came from. If anyone has any questions or comments about any of my blogs then please get in touch with me. You can get in touch through the comments on this post, through the contact page or even through our Facebook group, Sweeney’s Blogs!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Hope you all have a great week and remember to keep Highlighting the I in Difference!
Sweeney’s Blogs
Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!
£5.00
James
Stuttering affects lots of different people in lots of different ways. One of the main factors to think of when it comes to stuttering is how people react to you. Teachers in school are there to support and mentor you so how do you react when one of them makes fun of your stutter? This is something that I have gone through and I will discuss it further in this blog.
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Today’s blog is going to be the fourth blog in my Stuttering in Mainstream Media series and is going to focus on when I was picked on by a teacher in school for stuttering. I loved school and learning when I was younger and even though I encourage everyone to look at the positives all the time there are times when you need to look at the negatives to learn and develop from them. This blog is going to look at how a teacher picked on my stutter, how I reacted at the time and what we can learn from it.
The incident itself happened when I was in year 8 back in Secondary School. Me and my classmates in 8f were in a History lesson at the time. F was one of the top sets in the year. The class was close to the start of the year and our teacher asked us what we think we should learn about this year. Most of the class asked if we would learn about World War 2 or about Slavery and I would just sit and listen. I used to feel quite scared about speaking up in class due to my stutter but I finally thought I would give speaking a go.
I had been a big fan of reading encyclopaedias and history books at the time and had starting learning a lot about Oliver Cromwell. I had read all the books I had on him and didn’t understand the formal articles that were published online. I was really interested in his story however so decided to try and ask our teacher if we would be learning about him. Before I go further into the story I am not going to be mentioning the teachers name in theis blog as that is not the point of the blog, the point of the blog is to learn from my experience and how it affected me, it is not meant as an attack to the teacher in question.
I raised my hand and the teacher said my name. I started off asking the question, “Miss, do we get the chance to learn” when I just couldn’t get anymore words out. When I finally got the confidence to carry on every word I said was full of stutters, “abbbooout Oliver Cccrrrom Cromwell this year?” The question itself was easy to understand even though I stuttered a number of times. Instead of answering the question though the teacher decided to stop, make everyone quiet and then turned to speak to me.
She looked at me and said ” Jjjjames ssspeak prop-er-ly.” I just sat there staring at her in pure shock. I didn’t know how to react or what to do at the time. School was a place where I felt safe growing up and it is somewhere that I really enjoyed to be in. I couldn’t understand why someone in her position would make fun of me in front of the whole class. The rest of the class went completely silent too, no one knowing what to say or how to react.
This lesson was the very first lesson of the day. I didn’t speak again until lunchtime that day, around 4 hours after the lesson happened. No one really noticed that I wasn’t speaking until we all went out to get lunch. I was with my mates on the yard when a boy from my class comes over and starts telling everyone about what happened in History. I didn’t say a word when he was telling the story, I just listened and stared in the distance. When he finished the story everyone just turned and looked at me.
I did not know what to do when the boy was telling the story. I did not know how I should have felt, what I should have done, who I should have spoken to, etc. it is why I just stared into the distance, I was lost. After the boy finished telling the story all of my friends looked the same. Some spoke to me like they felt sorry for me, one or two seemed like they had genuine empathy for me and then the rest just didn’t react, they just stood there thinking.
It was when two of my good friends, Zac and Dylan, found out that action was taken. Zac and Dylan had been my friends all the way through Primary and Secondary school. They understood the affect that my stutter had on me and that making fun of it or joking about it was not okay. As soon as they found out what happened they came over to see if I was alright and if there was anything they could do.
Aftr speaking to me they went to see our Head of Year to make a complaint against the teacher, something I didn’t know they were going to do at the time. If Zac and Dylan take action there and then then I do not think that anything would have been done about it and I feel like I wouldn’t have gotten over this incident. In their own rights they can be classed as stutterspirations as they took action to help me, a person with a stutter out, when no one asked them too, they simply did it off their own backs. Even though they may not know it but they did a great thing that went a long way to helping me control my stutter.
As lunchtime break ended on that day everyone went back inside ready for afternoon registration. As I was walking back towards my class my Head of Year called me into her office. She informed me that Zac and Dylan came to her with a complaint against my history teacher and they told her what happened. She sat me down and asked me to go through my side of the story.
I took a set in her office and slowly explained everything that happened from the start of the day up to now and how it made me feel. She sat there listening making notes on a notepad. I stopped a few times when telling the story due to stuttering or when I would get a bit emotional going through it. It was at this point that the reality of what actually happened dawned on me.
After we finished discussing what happened she asked if I wanted to go home or if I wanted to stay in school. I said that I want to stay in school as there is only one lesson left in the day and do not want to fall behind on work. She then asked me if I want to make a complaint against the teacher or if I want to swap classes to be taught by a different history. I thanked her for both offers but refused them both. I would stay in the class, to prove to myself that I was strong enough and that I couldn’t be broken by one person.
It took me a while to get back to normal after that day. It took me around two to three days to start answering questions in class again and then around a week or so to start asking questions again. I was lucky that I was a fast learner at the time and that I understood the topics we were studying as I am the type of person that usually has a lot of questions about the work we are doing.
I decided against telling my parents what happened at first. I cannot remember exactly why i decided not to tell them but I think that I thought that if no one spoke about it then it would be forgotten about and then I could move on in some way. They eventually found out through a friend of mines mum at a football game on the following Saturday and then I filled them in on everything that had happened.
My mother decided to write a letter to the school voicing her concerns over the matter and then went in to have a meeting with the headmaster. During the following tutorial session on Monday morning I was called out of my class to go to the headmasters office. When I got there he asked me to sit down and tell him what happened from start to finish so I did. As I was talking through what happened he was just sitting there listening, nodding, trying to understand what happened and how to handle it.
After I had told him everything he got a fellow student to go and get the teacher from her class. When she came into his office, I started shaking, dreading what was going to happen next. He then asked me to repeat everything that I had just told him in front of the teacher. I started telling the story again, looking at her reaction every so often to she how she would react. As soon as I finished the story I closed my eyes for a few seconds to stop myself from breaking down and then turned to see what was going to happen.
Our headteacher made the teacher apologise to me and then he asked her to go back to her class. After she left the room he asked me if I was alright and if I wanted to go home. i said that I would stay in school thank you but I just need a few minutes to pick myself back up and then I would be find to go back to lessons. He nodded and agreed and told me that if I felt like I needed to leave any class for a few minutes then it would be more than fine and he would inform my other teachers on what had happened.
That is the story of how a teacher picked on me in front of the whole class back in Secondary school. I have never told the story to anyone since leaving school so it was quite nice to finally air it out and explain what actually happened. We can learn quite a lot from the story, even though it seems very negative and bleak there are a few interesting lessons we can take from it.
Firstly speaking out is very important. I was too scared to speak out about what happned at first but was very lucky that my good friends Zac and Dylan were there to do it for me. Speaking out takes a lot of courage but it is the only way that change will ever happen. We can’t just sit around and wait for change to happen, if we think something is wrong we have t speak up and try and make a change for the better. Speaking out seems like a very basic and easy thing but it can be one of the hardest things you can do. People usually don’t understand things unless you explain it to them.
Taking action is very important. Always try and take action yourself and if you see someone in trouble then try to help them out. Be the person that Zac and Dylan were for me. They saw that I was struggling and they stepped in. Always try your best to help people out, you never know they might return the favour in the future.
Secondly you can always pick yourself back up. After the teacher made fun of me I thought that I would never be able to speak in front of people again. It shook me to my core that someone in a position such as a teacher would pick on me in front of my whole class. It took me a while to understand that if I didn’t speak in class again then the only person it would impact on would be myself and I couldn’t let myself down because of someone else’s mistake.
That is all I want to talk about in today’s blog! I know today’s blog was a bit longer than what I usually do but I think it is important to go through the story and talk about how it affected me and how you can pick yourself back up again after someone knocks you down. What do you all think? Did you enjoy reading today’s blog? Have you got any stuttering stories you want to share? What do you think of what the teacher did? How would you react if it happened to you? Let me know your answers to the questions and any other thoughts you had on the blog in the comments or get in touch with me through the Sweeney’s Blogs Facebook page.
Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed! Remember keep Highlighting the I in Difference!
Sweeney’s Blogs
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Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!
Today’s blog is going to act as an update blog focused around the future of different series on this page. I think that it is good to present a few of the ideas I have now and see if anyone wants them to become a series in the future or not. The ideas listed in this blog are not all of my ideas merely some of them but if you have an idea yourself for a series then please get in touch and we’ll discuss it further!
I have had one or two questions lately regarding the Looking Into Male Mental Health series. I do have every intention to bring the series back, I just need a bit of time to plan where the series was going. the last thing that I want to do is rush the blogs as that takes the care and sentiment away from them. As to when the series will come back, I am not 100% sure yet. I might bring the series back after the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series or maybe at a later date. When the series comes back is down to a few factors. If people really want to see the series return then it will come back sooner, if the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series does not go down very well then it’ll come back sooner and if I get a lot of messages regarding the series then I will bring it back sooner!
One series that I’ve wanted to do for a while is Into the Mind of a Bully. I feel like it would be quite a good series to run as it will encompass both personal experiences alongside factual evidence. The series will start off by talking about the most common reasons for bullying then will take a deeper look into it. I have had a lot of experience in regards to being bullied in my life so I think that I can portray a very real story.
Another potential series that I can run is one based off of Respect. Respect is a topic that is often refrained from talking about by most people but I think it could make quite a good series. We can take a look at the modern world and see what respect is nowadays and if there is still a divide between different social groups. I feel like this series can have a lot of different contrasting views and will make for some good discussions in the comments.
A sadder more emotional series that I could run would be called Watching them Fade Away. This series will look at the progression of Alzheimer’s and Dementia and how you are watching a loved one slowly fade away from in front of your very eyes. As mentioned previously it would be a sadder series but I feel like it would be a very informative one and will help deliver a strong message.
I am also thinking about possibly running a few series based off of University Students. There are quite a few series I could run off this topic such as student burnout and what university is actually like for a student. I believe these series will be good to take a look into student life and to show people that it is not always as easy as some people assume. This series will be quite fun to write as it will allow me to perform self-evaluation whilst writing it.
The last series that I want to talk about in today’s blog is all about the Self Hate Cycle. I have talked about the Self Hate Cycle in a previous blog in my Looking into Male Mental Health series but feel like it would be an excellent topic to write a series on. As discussed in the blog, https://sweeneysblog.com/2019/06/11/looking-into-male-mental-health-blog-9-personal-experience-2/, the self-hate cycle is quite dark and bleak however there are ways to break out of it. I believe that if I were to run a series on it then I could balance out some of the negatives with the positives and show that if you are in this cycle there is always a way out, no matter how hard and long it may seem.
Thank you for reading today’s blog! What series would you like to see in the future? Are there any series that you want to see return? Are there any series that you are not a fan of and don’t want me to write? Do you have any ideas that you think would make a good series or even an individual blog? Let me know what you think of the blog and your answer to the questions in the comments below!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a great weekend! Remeber keep Highlighting the I in Difference!
Sweeney’s Blogs
Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!
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James
What is a stutterspiration? How do they help people who stutter? What does it take to be a stutterspiration?
Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!
Today’s blog is going to be the fourth blog in the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series and is going to be about Stutterspirations. Stutterspiration is a word that I have created to help distinguish a certain type of people. A Stutterspiration is a person with a stutter who inspires other people who have a stutter. The main purpose of this blog is to take a deeper look into what a stutterspiration actually is and how they help influence others.
The interesting thing when it comes to stutterspirations is that they can be found in almost all walks of life. A stutter does not discriminate which means that we can find people with stutters in all aspects of the media. In this blog, we are going to briefly talk about a person who I class as a stutterspiration and how they earned success off their talent alone.
The first person that I ever classed as a Stutterspiration is Harrison Craig. Harrison Craig is an Australian Singer who found his fame by winning the second season of The Voice Australia. Harrisons audition is where we first found out about his stutter. If you have not seen his audition or maybe want to rewatch it then you are more than welcome to click on the video below.
One of the things that I find the most interesting with Harrison’s story is that he does not get through via sympathy, he gets through simply down to pure talent. If anyone is not familiar with how the voice works then the premise is simple. Contestants sing on stage with the four coaches turned away from them, if the coach likes what they hear then they press their button and turn their chair. The contestant then gets to decide which team to go on based off which judge/ judges turn around and then progress through to the next stage of the competition.
Now as I said previously Harrisons got through his audition and then indeed went on to win the competition down to pure talent alone. Even though he has a stutter and struggles to full sentences at times without stuttering, his singing is still faultless. This just goes to show that having a stutter should not hold you back, you can still be successful even if you can’t speak without stopping sometimes.
Harrison’s story helped me realise quite a few things about how I approached my life when it came to my stutter. The fact that Harrisons pursued his dream and went on live TV with a stutter solidified the idea in my head that my stutter should not hold me back in life. I started to approach life in a more confident way and started doing things that I wanted to do. This confidence boost was one of the reasons I became a Swimming Teacher and has allowed me to teach numerous swimmers over the past 3 years. A small portion of my achievement has to be given to people like Harrison who showed us that it is possible.
I have had a lot of different people in my life tell me that I cannot do certain things due to the fact that I have a stutter. Harrison’s story is a perfect example as to why they are completely wrong. A stutter does not limit you in regard to what you want to do in life. The only thing that does limit you if you have a stutter is yourself. A stutter may make you take longer to say some things but that does not mean that your voice is any less important than someone else’s.
That is all I want to talk about in today’s blog. Thank you all for reading! What do you all think? Did you know Harrison’s story before reading this blog? Do you know of any stutterspirations in your life? What attributes do you think leads to a person being a stutterspiration? Let me know what you think and any other comments you have about my blogs in the comments of this blog or on our Facebook page.
Thank you all for reading and I hope to see you all in the next blog! Have a great week and remember to Highlight the I in difference!
Sweeney’s Blogs
Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!
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James
Our outlook and attitude on life, in general, plays a huge part in how happy we are in life and how successful we become. Someone who thinks positively about everything will be more relaxed, calm and smile more than someone who is always looking at the bad side, who lets stress get to them and […]
via A positive Outlook for a Positive Life — mobevision.wordpress.com
Ever wondered if age had an effect on if someone stuttered? Do more men stutter? Do men outgrow stutters more than women do?
Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!
Today’s blog is going to be the second blog in the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series. This blog is going to cover whether age and gender have an impact on if a person stutters or not. It is very important to understand what stuttering is and how it affects different people before we start looking at how stutters are covered in mainstream Media as it allows us to go in with a more balanced view.
I wasn’t originally going to go into the contributing factors in this series but after a few questions asked in the last blog by Sarah Chorley on our Facebook page (thank you for the feedback and the questions!). I am more than happy to tailor what content is covered in each of these blogs to what you all want to see so if you have any ideas or thoughts on what you would like me to cover then please get in touch!
Gender is surprisingly one of the largest factors to look at when finding the difference in people who stutter. I originally didn’t think gender had an influence on people having a stutter but the facts tell a completely different story. An article by The Stuttering Association called On the Gender Factor in Stuttering, can be found here: https://www.stutteringhelp.org/gender-factor-stuttering, provides an in-depth view on how gender and a few factors do have an effect on if a person stutters or not.
What I really like about this article is that it talks about gender differences in the number of people stuttering in different generations. it allows us to look at the factors of gender and age at the same time. The first statistic we are going to be looking at is the difference between male and females at primary school age. The article tells us that there is a difference between the genders, providing us with a male-to-female ratio of 2:1 for children in primary school.
This difference may seem very small but when we put it into context the numbers can be alarming. Let us use a class size of 30, 15 boys and 15 girls for an example. For this example, we are going to say that 5 girls in the class have a stutter. If 5 girls in the class have a stutter it means that 10 out of the 15 boys in the class have a stutter. The ratio shows us that for every 1 girl that has a stutter, theoretically speaking, 2 boys would have a stutter. This statistic is crazy and it just gets more interesting in older people.
The article tells us that for people who are older the male-to-female ratio increase to 4:1 or even greater. Putting this into a very basic example, if we have for every 100 females who have a stutter, there will be 400 or more men that will also have a stutter. This ratio of quadruple the difference between genders is really interesting and caught me completely off-guard.
There are even more alarming statistics in the article which you’re more than welcome to read from the link provided but the ones that surprise me is in regard to stutter recovery. Apparently, men are more likely to develop chronic stutters than women. This can be traced to several different factors. Start, the Stuttering Treatment and Research Trust, https://www.stuttering.co.nz/news/why-are-males-more-likely-to-stutter/, help provide us with a few different reasons behind the difference between men and women.
They explain to us that females are more likely to naturally outgrow their stutters compared to males. The reasons for this as well as the reasons behind men stuttering more than women have not been identified as of yet. It is a topic that is under research and each experiment and researcher has their own view and opinion. It is agreed by nearly all industry professionals that if you or anyone you know does suffer from a stutter then it is best if they seek professional help.
Professional help for stuttering can usually be good as it can help us locate the reason why we stutter and then we can work to combat it. The main problem arises when it comes down to which treatment style works for you. I will be doing a blog on different stuttering solutions in the future but I do have one up on the page already. The blog that I have already written about a stuttering solution is called Rhythmical Thinking and it can be found here: https://sweeneysblog.com/2019/02/07/rhythmical-thinking-a-stuttering-solution/. The blog talks about a coping technique I used, how it works and how it helped me. Give it a read if you haven’t already!
That’s all I want to talk about in today’s blog! Thank you all for reading and I hope you’ve enjoyed it! I will be in Rhodes from the 3rd-10th of July so I may be unable to respond to comments as quickly as I usually do. I will try to answer questions as quickly as I can but I will be on holiday so apologies if it takes a little bit longer.
What do you all think fo today’s blog? Did you think that age or gender had an influence on having a stutter before reading the blog? Has anything I have talked about in this blog surprised you? Why do you think men stutter more than women? Let me know what you think in the comments or on our Facebook page! If you have any ideas or thoughts for the future of the series too let me know!
Thank you all for reading and a big thanks for the continued support! Hope you all have a great week and I’ll see you in the next blog coming this Thursday!
Sweeney’s Blogs
Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!
£5.00
James
Stuttering, a monumental topic that is often not given the attention it deserves. Many people know people who have a stutter but they really research into what a stutter is and how it can impact someone’s life. This series is going to delve into the world of stutters and reveal another side to the common condition.
Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!
Today’s blog is going to be the first blog in the new series, Stuttering in Mainstream Media. This series is going to really take a look at how a stutter can impact a person’s life, how it is covered in Mainstream Media and how we as a society can take a look at stutters in a new light. One of the biggest questions that arise when looking at stutters and stammers is what really is a stutter?
When it comes to looking at what a stutter really is, there are lots of different possibilities. The NHS,https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stammering/, break down stuttering/stammering into 3 different definitions. The first definition for a stutter is when “your repeat sounds or syllables” of a word. This is usually the most common definition for a stutter and is usually the one that has the most impact on your life.
The second definition the NHS provide is when you “make sounds longer”. An example of this can be with the word, please. People who do not have a stutter will say the word please, simply as the word, please. People who have a stutter, however, tend to extend parts of the word so it can end up sounding like pppppplease. It is usually harder to identify people who stutter this way.
The last definition that we are going to cover in this blog is when “a word gets stuck or doesn’t come out at all”. This type of stuttering is the one that I found hardest to learn to live with. It is one that isn’t usually talked about even though it can lead to a severe decrease in a persons self-confidence and in some cases can lead to people isolating themselves.
As you can see from the three definitions above stuttering/stammering comes in many different forms. There is a common misconception that stuttering does not have much of an effect on people which is something that I am aiming to change. The main objective of this series is to raise awareness into what stutters actually are, to talk about my own experiences about living with a stutter and then to bring in how stutters are covered in the media, on talent shows and in society in general.
That’s all I want to talk about in today’s blog! I hope you’re all looking forward to the blogs in this series as much as I am. Do you have any questions about stuttering that you want answers too? Have you ever had a stutter? Do you know anyone who has a stutter? How has it affected them? Are there any famous people you know who have a stutter? Let me know what you think in the comments or via our Facebook page.
Thank you all for reading today’s blog! I want to say a massive thank you to everyone too as we have now reached over 100 likes on the pages Facebook page. Hope you all have a great week and I’ll see you in the next blog!
Sweeney’s Blogs
Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!
£5.00
James
A common misconception I often see people have about positivity is that it’s blind optimism. That to be positive, you must disregard negativity, see the best in everything, and pay no attention to issues that come your way. Not only is this assumption incorrect, but I’d also argue that it perpetuates a toxic concept of […]
via Why Positivity Doesn’t Mean Being Happy All the Time — Currently, Lately
Do you want to find out more about Male Mental Health? Living Life with a Stutter? Learning to manage and get past stressful situations? Then Sweeney’s Blogs is the page for you!
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