along with my twin brother

I had ten fingers and ten toes

Everything seemed like it was fine

As a baby, I was not as fussy

and didn't cry as much as my brother

I was a shy child

When I was little, it was ok

if I didn't talk

It is ok to be shy when you are younger

As I grew older, people expected me

to grow out of it

It was supposed to be a phase

It was more than a phase

I had selective mutism

My name is Kim

This is my story

When I was younger, there were two sides of me

At home, I was a happy and loud child

"La la la la la la la!"

"It's my movie!"

If I was with a lot of people, I would shut down

Sometimes, I felt frozen in place

Even though I have always been able to

talk to most of my family

there were still times when it was hard

Cousin- Ready, say it, say it

say hike

I would get very anxious if all eyes were on me

At school, I played with my brother a lot

I loved learning and did what I could

to be a part of it

I had good grades when I was younger

I played like all of the other kids

Nothing was wrong with me

I was shy and was going to grow out of it

When I was younger, I didn't think

about how quiet I was

As I grew older, the anxiety

grew and held me back

I felt like nobody understood me

I was told I was doing it on purpose

and to start talking more

Sometimes, it was hard to even pick up

a pencil in class

I started to becomeing afraid of doing

things wrong

In my mind, I rather not do it all

than do it wrong

I started failing my classes

Teachers didn't know what to do with me

Being in class made me anxious

I was usually punished for not doing my work

Teachers got mad at me if I didn't talk

As a teenager, I was supposed to

be able to get over my shyness

I learned that I wasn't just shy

I had selective mutism and my anxiety

was taking over my life