This is the Moth Radio Hour, I'm your host, Suzanne Rust.
Moth story slams are magical.
Each evening has a theme like lost, busted, or love hurts.
Brave people from all across the country show up with a five-minute story that relates to the theme and drop their names in a hat for the chance to step on the stage and share it.
No no's.
This week's Hour, which features stories from these slams,
explores how we reflect on our worlds at different ages and stages of our lives,
from childhood and teens to adulthood and later life.
From personal experience and non-scientific observation, I think it's pretty safe to say that in middle school,
confidence levels are not an all-time high.
So the last thing most kids want is to be the center of attention.
Our first storyteller found herself in that position and lived to tell the tale.
Anne McMachinie-Kiehl's told this at a Chicago slam where we partner with public radio station WBEZ.
Here's Anne, live at the mall.
My story takes place in 1998 at a school on the south side of Chicago.
No joke.
But this was a Catholic school on the south side of Chicago and I was the student.
It's 1998.
It's April of 1998.
Tuesday morning I am in my polo shirt and my ugly uniform skirt with a very heavy backpack full of math,