For my entire life, I have been scared to speak. I was diagnosed with selective mutism when I was two years old. This disorder has made it difficult for me to communicate with anybody that I am not close to. For myself, this meant that talking to or even in the presence of my teachers was out of the question. I would refuse to speak in class and, as a result, many of my classmates thought I was weird and did not talk to me. I was not bothered by that fact. I had my select few friends that I was comfortable talking to, and that was enough for me. I would not find out until high school that my selective mutism caused me to come across as rude. That was the way my friends told me people thought about me. At first, it hurt. I went home and cried,
