I'm Back!

Hi All!

I am back from Charlotte! Yeah!

The NSDA National Symposium was wonderful and the Leadership Training was fabulous! It was very worthwhile for me to go to the symposium and training.

First of all, I got to meet all the people I have been communicating with via email for so long. Finally putting faces to names was a lot of fun. Meeting the president of the NSDA and the board members was nice. Their titles always made them seem a bit "lofty" but when I met them, I realized that they are warm and friendly people. Interestingly enough, they seemed to all know who I was. I felt honored that these people - the leadership of the NSDA - knew me.

Next , I got to speak to the leadership (the board members and support group leaders from around the country) about podcasting. I love, love, love public speaking (I know that makes me a weirdo . . .) and so being able to speak in front of a crowd again was very satisfying for me. This was the first time I have done any public speaking since SD first showed up.

It was also fun to talk about one of my passions - podcasting. My podcast was started to make a "SD voice" available for someone else with SD to hear. I shared this goal with the audience and hopefully, one or two people will think about starting a podcast to let their "SD voice" be heard! I do know that my presentation was very well received. That made me feel wonderful!

Then, at the symposium I learned a lot of new information about SD and the research being done to find the cause of SD. I met many people from across the United States who have SD. It was nice that no one felt intimidated by speaking. No one had to explain why their voice sounded weird. No one had to worry about what other people would think about their voice. We all understood!

Well, that is all I am going to ramble about for now. Hopefully, I will get some pictures up for tomorrow. Today I need to grocery shop, do some laundry, meet the structural engineer (more foundation stuff), and hopefully get to the ASL lab.

Have a good one!

Trisha

Voice Update: Well, I over did the talking this weekend. My voice is a bit hoarse and tired. I am getting the massage on and also resting my voice a bit. Many people at the symposium had a difficult time believing that I actually have SD. It was a bit weird for me. I DO have SD. I DO! I am just VERY, VERY lucky to have recovered some of my voice!