Cristóbal Pardo

As usual, we all remember our stages of childhood and adolescence with very marked moments. Happy moments, not so happy moments and also moments of pain. For people who stutter, these stages in our lives are marked even more, in that way, if each one of us mentally goes back to our beginnings and goes through our own life story, we’ll see that, with no doubt, the road hasn’t been easy. The simple fact of feeling that it has been that way, personally, fills me with pride. Because we agree that, by falling in infinite occasions and getting up each time, to fight again, is worthy of those who are convinced that nothing is impossible.

Particularly, I believed for a long time that at some point my stutter would leave, it would leave me alone, it would vanish by magic or something like that. That illusion did nothing but make me sink and made me lose my way in moments. And yes, it was to be expected, there were 37 long years of insecurities, fears and questions that prowled my mind each day and convinced me that limits existed and that there was no option for improvement.

It was October 2017 and by things of destiny, I could know of the McGuire Programme. How? Thanks to the video that Juan Pablo Montero published, whom I admire profoundly. So, I arrived at my first course in December of that same year in the city of Lima. Before the start, a lot of anxiety and at the same time confident that it was the opportunity I’d been looking for for so long. I knew there would be a before and after when the course ended. That’s why it’s hard to explain all the emotions that I felt at the end of that first course.

Feelings like; being able to say any word without fear of failing, feeling that those barriers that for so long limited were no longer there, not wanting to avoid different challenging situations that for any person would be an everyday situation and thus, an endless list of things that made me comprehend that from something bad always comes something positive, that there’s a reason and/or purpose for the different obstacles that you face in your personal life story.

Whoever manages to make sense of the rough path that may have been their life, can call themselves lucky. The personal satisfaction of understanding what and why we’re here is priceless… And personally, I can say that I could understand my way.

Thank you McGuire Programme!