Growing up in Chicago

So, I’ve been doing short videos on Youtube talking about different topics in enterprise technology. This is the first time in a few years I’ve actually listened to myself talk. When I was a kid I spent 45 minutes a week for 8 years going to speech therapy. My teachers had a hard time understanding me because I would cut off or slur together words instead of taking the time to fully enunciate my words.

This got me a rap of not being very bright and effected my confidence in and out of the classroom. I never really fully developed the skill of fully enunciating my words but I remember a distinct time when it affected me as an adult. I went on a job interview at a fast food restaurant and eventually got the job after hounding the manager. A few months after proving myself to be a pretty good employee the manager confided in me that he thought I had a mental development problem. He said I turned out to be one of his best hires. As politely as I could I told him, “I’m not dumb. I just talk funny.”

Watching the video’s reminded me that I still talk funny but, I’m much more confident and it kind of goes with the whole geek thing that I’ve embraced in the portion of my life.