Welcome to the Moth.
I'm Kate Tellers.
The hangover, real or metaphorical, from your New Year's bash is over,
your holiday parties are in the rear view,
and you've logged countless hours in the endless goodbyes of merry gatherings.
Now, the pressure is on, to become a completely different,
better, and more successful person in 2026.
It's impossible not to wonder, how do I essentially turn over a new leaf?
And though people are asking that more often in the new year, that question's always present.
Well, to help with that, on this episode, we'll have two stories of people trying new things,
taking a leap, in one case literally, shaking their lives up and turning over new leaves.
First, we have Laura Gilbert, who told this at a Philadelphia slam where the theme was crossroads.
Here's Laura, live at the Monk.
As a child, I was unconfident in new situations,
so my parents repeatedly gave me the advice, fake it till you make it.
So much so that I as an adult now feel like this is sort of stamped onto me like a birthmark.
So when my current manager told me that it was time to add me to the on-call rotation,
while hearing this struck terror into the depths of my very being,
I responded by aggressively agreeing with how good of an idea this was.
I am a software engineer at a tech company,