What Would You Like To Order?

Blog by Brittany Rodriguez

Do you have a favorite coffee order?

One of my favorite orders at Starbucks is a Venti White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha. It’s my go-to order during the holidays and one I turn to when I’m needing comfort during the year. For those who stutter, being able to order exactly what you want is not as simple as pulling up into the drive-through and making your request.

Before the time of Uber eats, Postmates or making an online order through an app, we had no choice but to order with our voice. This requires verbally making your request face-to-face, through a drive-through or over the phone. What seems like a small and insignificant task can be anything but for those who are not fluent.

Although I use masking techniques that help me “appear” fluent, ordering food and drinks has been a struggle more times in my life than I can even count.

My stutter is worse when I’m tired, like first thing in the morning before I have had my coffee, or when I’m stressed. A technique I use many times to appear fluent is to change a word that I can feel is going to be an issue. When you’re ordering something specific, this is not a technique that works. The result is often being forced to stumble through a repetition which, if you are comfortable with your stutter, you may have no issue doing. Often the issue is with the person who is taking your order not being able to understand what you have said, forcing you to repeat the process over and over again and hoping the end result is a correct order. The other option is to just order something that is easier to say. This often feels like defeat.

Even in this digital age, I still order my coffee verbally through the drive-through. I still go to restaurants and order my food face-to-face. Sometimes this results in a back and forth with the speaker box because I’m struggling with my order or pointing to the food item on the restaurant menu because the waitress is very confused, but I am okay with it. This is my normal. But…that wasn’t always the case.

I was a kid who always ordered the same thing time and time again. When I became a teenager and started gaining some independence, I was forced to start ordering for myself because there was no parent to order for me. This was my first experience with ordering anxiety. I remember going to my favorite smoothie shop after my shift at my after-school job and trying to order my favorite raspberry strawberry smoothie. I walked up to the counter and no matter what I did I had a complete verbal block. To anyone else I just appeared to be very indecisive. The nice person at the counter, in an attempt to help, simply said “would you like a suggestion?” I immediately responded with “order me your favorite.” This was the beginning of what would now be my new way of ordering for the next few years. Within several months I had tried everything on the menu and even every drink on their “secret menu.”

After years of this approach, I was exposed to a wide variety of items. I tried things at restaurants I never would have on my own (like sushi, which has become my favorite food) and have also had my share of food and drink items I learned I really do not like. Eventually I gained the confidence to order what I wanted on the menu, but I also had the confidence to try something new. I still order every new coffee at Starbucks and can confidently say there isn’t a latte flavor on the menu I do not like. But I also learned that I deserve to order what I WANT, not just what I can say.

I am so grateful that we have ways to digitally order these days. I no longer have to order takeout over the phone and risk getting hung up on when I hit a verbal block. However, I am not afraid to use my voice. To my peers in the stuttering community, do not be afraid to use yours. We hide our stutters so often that when people hear them, they don’t know how to react. Our voices are beautiful, even when we are not fluent. We deserve patience. We deserve to be heard. But most importantly, we deserve to order a Venti white chocolate peppermint mocha when we are having a rough morning and need a pick-me-up.

From the Fall 2024 Magazine

CELEBRITY FOCUS

Bob Love

The late Bob Love dreamt about being a great public speaker since his early days in Bastrop Louisiana, even though, as a young man, he could barely put two words together, let alone speak a full sentence.

In spite of his severe stuttering disability, Bob Love, the son of a sharecropper, rose to become a Chicago Bulls NBA superstar, whose records were eventually surpassed by Michael Jordan. Throughout his entire athletic career, Bob Love kept his stuttering a secret from the fans who adored him, thinking he could do his “talking” on the basketball court.

Kenyon Martin

Kenyon Martin, the basketball sensation who was named to the NBA’s All Star Team in 2004, joins other famous people who stutter in a new brochure. The brochure - which unfolds into a small poster - is available free of charge from The Stuttering Foundation.

The poster is intended to give children and adults who stutter inspiration as they grapple with their speech disorder.

Winston Churchill

Seeking to "remove Winston Churchill's stutter by second guessing the diagnosis" indicates neither a truthful retelling of history nor an informed opinion about a complex speech disorder, say experts in the field of speech-language pathology.

Recent news reports that quote Dr. John Mather, a Washington physician, as saying that Churchill's stutter "is a lie" brought adamant critical response from specialists in the field of stuttering and fluency disorders.

Bill Walton

From BillWalton.com

Thank you for your interest in my life long problem with my speech and communication skills. I was a very shy and reserved young man who could not speak at all without severely stuttering until I was 28 years old. Always a success in the classroom and on the basketball court, I took refuge in the things that I did well as a youngster. A straight A student, my athletic abilities covered the deficiencies that limited my overall growth and development. The game of basketball was my religion, the gym my church. It was a convenient way of avoiding my responsibilities of developing my human relation skills.

When I was 28, a chance encounter at a social event with Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Glickman completely changed my life in so many ways that things have never been the same since, nor have they ever been better. That day, in a very brief, private conversation (one way, mind you, since I literally could not speak at the time) Marty explained, patiently and concisely, that talking, communicating was a skill not a gift or a birthright and that like any skill, whether it be sports, music, business or whatever, needed to be developed over a lifetime of hard work, discipline, organization and practice. Marty gave me some simple tips that day and then encouraged me to take those keys and apply them to methods of learning that I had received from the special teachers that I had come across in my life, particularly the 6 Hall of Fame basketball coaches that I had played for throughout my career. The beginning of my whole new life was as simple as that. No gimmicks, tricks or shortcuts. Just the realization that with some help, guidance and a lot of hard work that I too could do what seemed so easy, simple and natural to everyone else, yet seemed impossibly out of my reach and comprehension.

Alan Rabinowitz

Alan Rabinowitz, Ph.D., who passed away in 2018, was an explorer, wildlife conservationist, and author. He established the Hukawng Valley Tiger Reserve in northern Myanmar, which is about the size of the state of Vermont.

His love for animals began when he was very young.