Sometimes a Weakness is really a Strength in disguise......

Hello everyone,

I'm back for my first "real entry" to this blog. I thought this entry might be appropriate. Whenever there seems to be a roadblock in my way, Im often reminded of a memory from when I was a young child and in the Ist grade. I started having a fairly severe stuttering problem. It seemed to come out of nowhere and caught me by surprise. Soon my classmates were making fun of me behind the teachers back and I started to fall behind. I had problems reading aloud and teachers were considering holdin me back. It bothered me to feel like I had this defect or something

I was assigned a speech therapist and had leave class an hour a day. At first, I was embarrased to be called out of class every day to go to the "special class". The teacher said she thought I stuttered was because I had so many thoughts running in in my head at the same time, and that I couldn't get them out quick enough.

I worked with her everyday as we did excercises and practiced slowing down my speech. It was tedious work and I often got frustrated. remember that even while at home, I would repeat every sentence I had just said aloud underneath my breath (I wasn't told to do this , but it seemed to help). Slowly but surely my stuttering began to subside and I started doing well again.

I passed the 1st grade. By 4th grade I was put into another special class...but this time it was the academically gifted class for English! Now, twice a week I would leave class to do fun things that involved language. It felt nice to go from being"disabled" to being acknowledged. would learn later that my former weakness would become a huge seed of strength for me.

To this day, I can't help but think of this story a few times a week. You see, I'm known a very good "freestyle" artist in hip-hop circles. This involves rapping whatever comes to your head in an unrehearsed and organic manner.. My disabilities ofyouth have turned into my major strength as I follow my music dream! I still have a million thoughts running in my head at once, as always, but now atleast I can harness em and produce some really good freestyles (and hopefully some good blog entries).

It's so important for us to recognize that sometimes we view a problem ,but in reality its a strength that we just havent found a use for. I felt cursed because of my stuttering, but it was really God's way of giving me a valuable gift Whenever you feel you feel you have a weakness or defect, just ask yourself.... "How can I turn this into a positive that can lead me to success"? I thank my readers for allowing me to share this story and I look forward to sharing many more!

STEVE