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Three Wishes
Anthony Johns had a wish. He knew stuttering was making his life hard, and he wished he could speak in a way that he would be understood. He knew he was smart, but his speech impediment made it difficult for him to share his thoughts with the world.
Then one day his grandfather told him about the SpeechEasy device, after hearing about it on Oprah. He told Johns about it, and he also told him that he had to get one. Johns started to get curious.
"My grandfather saw it on the Oprah show, and he told me about it at Christmas 2002. And then I saw the device on Montel. I had all the information about the SpeechEasy device, but I thought it was so much money; I could wait until after college. I wanted it so badly, I wanted to implement this device into my life. I knew I had to get the device."
That's when he decided to take a chance on making his wish come true.
He heard about the NBC T.V. show, "Three Wishes," Hosted by Amy G rant, and he sat down to write them a letter - an email, in fact. And in the process, he noticed on the NBC website there was a casting call just an hour from his sister's house in Georgia. So he sent them an email to have a wish fulfilled to have a speech device.
"I wrote a page letter talking about my life, how the speech device was introduced to me by my late grandfather. It's very difficult to open up and tell people about my life ... I did that. One of the producers called me back in two weeks, and left me a message ... my mom told me about it. They wanted to meet us at an open casting call in Covington, Georgia - which was one hour from where I was," said Johns, remembering the moment with fresh enthusiasm, as if it happened just yesterday.
"That summer, I was pretty down ... coming back from my internship with NASA - it went well, but at the end of the day, we had to do an oral presentation. And the presentation was ... my portfolio. I did it in front of 10 people. It was a nice portfolio, but I didn't like the presentation because I repeated words ... and I knew I could do better. Everyone was saying that I did 'good' because I had enough guts with a speech impediment to get in front of people. But I didn't do great, and I just knew I could do better."
Johns had to bring his whole family to the Three Wishes casting call. They all went in on a Saturday in July. "I was wondering how I was going to get my whole family together to go, but we did it," he recalls.
Tiffany Parker, MS, CCC-SLP, a SpeechEasy provider in Atlanta, GA, fitted Johns for the device, did the molding, and let him try the device for the first time. He remembers it as being a very emotional moment, because for the first time in his life, he could speak clearly.
"The first time I had the device in, it was for the cameras. I drove to Marietta, Georgia, and talked with Tiffany. She fitted me with the SpeechEasy, and she made me go to the mall by myself and interact with people. It was like a whole new beginning. I had the device in for a couple of hours. I called my mom on the phone, and she was amazed."
Once his device was ordered and returned, he was fitted with his final device on camera. He remembers it as a very emotional moment.
"I can speak to people ... I can be outgoing ... I have confidence ... My insecurities are gone," he exclaims. "I did my oral presentation on the history of English Language in front of my class. And it was something I thought I could never do ... that used to hurt me the most. That killed me. I was so embarrassed, depressed, because I knew I could do better."
Johns has completely changed his life. In fact, he is in Texas attending college, and he recently made a senior class speech running for class president, and he won.
"It changed me. After the show, I became a tutorer for HS 9-12 grades, and I just became Mr. Ebony Texas, and will go to California to compete in the international competition. I had to do a telephone interview, and I did it with my speech device, and it is just so incredible! A lot of doors have been opened. It has been a year of transformation. I thought I couldn't achieve because of my speech impediment. I was concerned about my future. I was very concerned."
And how does his future look now?
"It looks bright. My main goal my true passion is of acting and performing. After college my plan is to attend an acting studio or college. I haven't told my mom and dad yet. I want to invest a year or two into my acting ... maybe Brown."
On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst Johns says he was a 10. This time last year he says he couldn't even introduce himself. He was in speech therapy from kindergarten to 11th grade. Johns does still does some speech therapy with the device.
"People ask me, 'Why are you so happy?' I say because life is changing for me. People don't really understand that. This time last year I was embarrassed, in shame. I was happy, but I wasn't joyful. But this blessing is so incredible. I don't have a choice just to be happy, I have to be grateful and joyful. Going on this show taught me about faith and about being humble, and it gave me a lot of tools."
"It made me appreciate myself as a person," he says, and then pauses to humbly reflect on all he is accomplishing.
A couple of days after they began to tape the show, John's grandfather died. He didn't get to hear Johns speak more fluently with his SpeechEasy, but Johns thinks that even though he passed away, he left something behind with him that was very special. And Johns knows it will change his life forever.
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