At the very end of Paperboy, Victor stands up in class and states his name and some facts about himself. No big deal, right? Think again. This is something that would have made him vomit or faint at the beginning of the story:
When I got up from my desk seat, all my classmates turned to look at me.
My name is Victor Vollmer the Third. I stutter when I talk but I like words anyway. I also like to play baseball.
I stuttered about the same as always with all the gigantic pauses and funny sounds coming out around the words but I didn't pay any attention to how my classmates looked at me and didn't try to figure out what they were thinking. And I said exactly what I wanted to. (20.40-42)
Even though Victor's always tried to hide his stutter and feels self-conscious, he grows up enough over the course of a summer to realize that he's more than his stutter, and he has a lot to offer. When he stands up to introduce himself to the class, it's a huge act of courage and shows that he's ready to really be in the world—stutter and all.