Childhood trauma leads to life of stuttering
“When I was 5 years old, I was walking home from school one day when a German Shepherd attacked me. He jumped on me and bit my leg. From that point on, because of the shock and trauma, I stopped speaking for a while. When I did try to speak, you couldn’t really understand what I was saying.
“My parents put me in speech therapy. But as a stutterer, I had trouble even saying my name. In school, I would always miss the first two days so I wouldn’t have to introduce myself. In grade school, the thought of having to read out loud was terrifying. When it was almost my turn, I would get up to go use the restroom. There were bullies who teased me. They would call me Porky Pig or Mel Tillis. So I chose not to speak.
“As I got older and became involved in drama in school, I would play different characters. And these characters did not stutter. That really puzzled my drama coach, my doctor and my speech therapist. When I was not acting in a play, my speech was regular Pedro horrible. But when I was on stage, I just hit it. There was no stuttering whatsoever. It was so much fun. I could not wait to go to school. I loved doing the plays. Because when I did that, I wasn’t myself. I was someone else.”
— Pedro Pena
Check out Pedro’s YouTube channel, My Stuttering Life.
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