When i was young

And no i do not mean that Ceilon Dion song. I have been Reading some David Sedaris books. This one call Me talk pretty one day. So far it's great. Well that brings me to my blog of the day. When i was in second grade, i developed a speech impediment. Mine was called

Speech sound disorders involve difficulty in producing specific speech sounds (most often certain consonant, such as /s/ or /r/), and are subdivided into articulation disorders (also called phonetic disorders) and phonemic disorders. Phonetic disorders are characterized by difficulty learning to physically produce sounds. Phonemic disorders are characterized by difficulty in learning the sound distinctions of a language, so that one sound may be used in place of many. However, it is not uncommon for a single person to have a mixed speech sound disorder with both phonemic and phonetic components.

yep. So every week up til i was in 5Th grade i was taken out for a whole thirty minutes of my day. Usually before lunch. I would be taken with this other girl. I still remember her name, Misty Miller. Now Misty was not born into a rich family. She would always come to school smelling of body odor, urine, and the worst poop. Her hair would be ratty and she would come into class with the same clothes on as of yesterday. she also was born into a huge family.

Each Wednesday we would walk together for our speech class. Both of us having a hard time saying r. We would both be packed in this small room where in the winter's in north bend the heater would be cranked and the smell of my fellow classmate would just reek of her natural odor. I can remember asking my teacher why it always smelt in the room and she would tell me that it was hot and something to do with the heater. Well we both knew it was her. I can still recall when all the partner of children with speech were called in one by on about the progression their child was at. The Miller's were in front of us.

I told my mother before about misty and that she didn't always smell so fresh and to not make a big deal about it. When we enter after the Miller's left, We entered the room to the same smells i endure with my teacher. To my surprise, she pulled out a can of air freshener. I told myself many time,

Why didn't you pull this out in class?

Well she apologize for the smell and told my mother that my speech was coming along fine and after a couple more session my R problems would be over. And as it turned out that Misty was to repeat back the following year.

I also found out that she had a huge crush on me. She wrote me note when we got back to class and say things like how much she likes me and wanted me to come over and meet her family. Now growing up with misty, i never really wanted anything to do with her. In class when we would have to sit in groups, i would always be in the same group with here and have at least one friend and popular person in our Lil groups. One year for Valentine's she got me a candy bar and made me a card. Now being the Lil shit i was, i gave her a care bear or whatever was popular when i was kid that all the class got. Except for my close friends got cookies that i made with my mother that tasted good. That year, i broke Misty's heart. She would follow me on the playground and ask me if i liked her.

When playing wall ball, she would try to beat me and confess her love to me. I got teased in class cause of her. Popular kids and my friends would sing that Derek and Misty sitting in a tree song. I want to die, i hated misty, i wanted to move, disappear, i hated her, i hated her. The Next year in Sixth grade i was relieved to hear that misty and her family moved 15 miles to the next towns over. The teasing stopped, i got no more notes, no more anything from misty. I was happy and yet the same time sad.

I realized that i was the only friend she had, the only thing we shared in common was our lack of speech for R's.