Greg introduces himself as a Professional Stutterer who specializes in Covert Stuttering as a CONSTANT reminder of his many yesteryears of attempts at chasing the "F" Word; FLUENCY, chasing a FLUENCY false god. By chasing a FLUENCY false god, by masking his severe stutter, Greg was fighting against accepting his stuttering. Greg has come to the recognition that by finding the courage to revisit and dissect his life by entering his dark rabbit hole of stuttering in mental health, he was in fact entering a dark rabbit hole of Stuttering Acceptance. Since retirement Greg has revisited and dissected his life in order to find out what happened in his life and why it happened in his life. His journey led him to write his MEMOIR. A MEMOIR about Discovering his ‘AUTHENTIC VOICE’, and about Discovering his ‘AUTHENTIC SELF’. A story about the bad, the ugly and a story of ‘CELEBRATION’.
As a person who stutters, sharing of my story is an opportunity to create awareness, education, understanding, acceptance of stuttering. Sharing of my story is an opportunity to challenge stigma and dismantling of barriers, ensuring equitable access and creating of an inclusive society that values, embraces and empowers diversity. The message of my story applies to everyone: as so many human beings might get dealt difficult cards in one way or another. No one makes it through life without being causalities of unforeseen challenges and circumstances. The challenge for all of us, is how we individually prepare, respond to and cope with addressing our personal challenges as we attempt to journey towards a fully functional and productive life. I hope that by sharing my story, audience members will in some way, find some points of interest that may provide some insight and guidance that may be of relevance for them along their journey. By sharing my story, as I continue to move forward, I can see how by befriending and embracing my past experiences, however painful this process has been, continues to be, in other words, by not throwing the baby out with the bath water, but by embracing these past experiences, I realize that I am here where I am meant to be, to pay it back and to pay it forward
About the presenters
Greg O'Grady
Greg is founder of 'a million things I need to say’ 1K/ 5K Walk, Run and Roll for Stuttering Awareness’, co-founder d The NL Stuttering Association, host of “Some Stutter, Luh! podcast and host of SSL! radio show called "BLOCKS".