When I was in fourth grade, I started stuttering（口吃）. I tried speech therapy（疗法）but it didn't1 . I begged to rid my stutter, but nothing changed. I was very 2 .
I tried to practice singing at home. To my amazement, the words came3 when I sang. My stutter disappeared. After that, I 4 my school team and began learning how to play the guitar. By the summer I was 16, severe anxiety and depression set in. My stutter had become my entire identity, and I was too 5 to talk at all. I didn't tell anyone how I was 6 .
Last year, I started college, where I'm majoring in music production. When I saw the America's Got Talent audition announcement pop up on my computer, I7 . A couple months later, I was standing on that enormous stage in Pasadena, trying to 8 my nerves as I introduced myself to the America's Got Talent judges and 9 . Then I launched into a new song I'd written,10 Back to Life. I tried to focus on the 11 . And just as I'd said, there was no stutter at all.
When I finished, the whole crowd was on its feet, and so were the judges. I couldn't 12 it! Judge Simon Cowell told me I had a pure and beautiful 13 . He and the other judges gave me the four votes I needed to 14 to the next round of the competition. I couldn't hold back my tears. My wildest dreams were coming true, dreams I'd never thought15 .
