THE STUTTERING ARTIST

Imagine a world where our biggest insecurities had the potential to coax out bouts of buried creativity and inspiration. Now, take a simple look around you. This is how I choose to see the world we find ourselves inhabiting at this present moment.

When it comes to me, there are two central truths that I need you to know.

One, I am an intrinsically creative minded person who has found success as a stage performer.

And two, I deal with an omnipresent stutter.

The choice to pursue my interest in the arts meant a melding of these two truths was always unavoidable. For good, for bad, and for every stumbled-on word in between, my stutter has shaped my reputation as an artist.

Which leads me to a third truth, hiding somewhere in the midst of the first two...

Traits that make us different just so happen to bestow upon us a natural sense of creativity. Even if those parts of us can prove a struggle.

And I do. Struggle, that is. After all, what's easy about a stutterer pursuing a field in which language is at the forefront?

Yeah, there's no denouement ready to be placed here. I am a stuttering artist. And it's an interesting, anxiety-inducing, yet empowering title which I do not take lightly.

One that I am trying to wear with pride.

YOURS TRULY,
PAT FESTA