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The Moth
The Moth Radio Hour: Prosthetics, Boot Camp and Heartache
00:54:01
In this hour, double-amputee Aimee Mullins chronicles her adventures with prosthetic legs as an athlete, actress and artist; the mother of a bullied teen tells the story of his suicide; Ex-NYC Mayor Ed Koch stands up to his anti-Semitic platoon leader ...
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Tech Reviewer
The Apple Watch Series 10 is here.
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Tech Announcer
It has the biggest display ever.
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Tech Reviewer
It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever.
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Tech Announcer
Making it even more comfortable on your wrist whether you're running, swimming or sleeping.
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Tech Reviewer
And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum compared to previous generations.
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Tech Announcer
IPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary.
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Sarah Austin Janess
As we approach the end of the year. I'm thinking about the next Next year is the year I finally make my Spanish better than my 9 year olds. Rosetta Stone is the most trusted language learning program available on desktop or as an app, and it truly immerses you in the language that you want to learn. I can't wait to use Rosetta Stone and finally speak better than my 9 year old who's been learning Spanish in his own way. Rosetta Stone is the trusted expert for 30 years with millions of users and 25 languages offered. Spanish, French, Italian, German, Korean. I could go on fast language acquisition. Rosetta Stone immerses you in many ways. There are no English translations, so you can really learn to speak, listen and think in that language. Start the new year off with a resolution you can reach today. The Moth listeners can take advantage of this Rosetta Stones lifetime membership for 50% off visit rosettastone.com moth that's 50% off. Unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your Life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com moth today from PRX, this is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Sarah Austin Jeness, producing director of the Moth and I'll be your host this time. The Moth is true stories told without notes in front of a live audience. We have six stories for you in this episode, three from the Moth main stage and three from our Moth Shop High School program. Up first is Amy Mullins. The night before the show, Amy called and asked if the stage had a rug on it. I said why? And she said, well, I need to pick out which pair of legs to wear to the show. Here's Amy Mullins live at the mall.
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Tech Announcer
So two weeks ago I was a bridesmaid and the reception was actually here at the New York Public Library. And I will never forget this wedding. Yes, it was very beautiful. But more importantly, I survived the slick marble floors that are all over this building. Tile and marble floors are public enemy number one to a stiletto loving girl like me. When most people learn to walk in very high heels and I had five inch heels on that night. They bend their ankles so that the ball of the foot touches the ground first. You have more stability. I. I don't have ankles, so I hit each step on the stiletto, which makes the possibility of the banana peel wipeout very likely. But given the choice between practicality and theatricality, I say go big or go home. Go down in flames if you're going to go. I guess I'm a bit of a daredevil. I think that the nurses at Dupont Institute would agree. I spent a lot of time there as a child. Doctors amputated both of my legs below the knee when I was an infant. And then when I was five, I had a major surgery to correct the wonky direction in which my tibia was growing. So I had two metal pins to hold that full plaster cast on both legs. I had to use a wheelchair because I couldn't wear prosthetics. And one of the best things about getting out of the hospital is the anticipation of the day you return to school. I had missed so much class. I just couldn't wait to get back and see all my friends. But my teacher had a different idea about that. She tried to prevent me from returning to class because she said that in the condition I was in, I was inappropriate and that I would be a distraction to the other students, which of course, I was, but not because of the cast in the wheelchair. Clearly, she needed to make my difference invisible because she wanted to control her environment and make it fit into her idea of what normal looked like. And it would have been a lot easier for me to fit into what normal looked like. I know I wanted that back then. But instead I had these wooden legs with a rubber foot that the toes broke off of, and it was held on with a rusty bolt that rusted out because I swam in the wooden legs. And you're not supposed to swim in the wooden legs, but the wood rots out, too. So there you are in second grade music class doing the twist. And mid twist, I hear this, and I'm on the floor and the lower half of my left leg is in splinters over there. And the teacher faints on the piano, and the kids are screaming, and all I'm thinking is, my parents are going to kill me. I broke my leg. It's a mess. But then a few years later, my prosthetist tells me, amy, we got waterproof legs for you. No more rusty bolts. I mean, this is a revelation, right? This is going to change my life. I was so excited to get these legs until I saw them, they were made of polypropylene, which is that white plastic milk jug material. When I say white, I'm not talking about skin color, I'm talking about the color white. The skin color was the rubber foam foot painted Caucasian, which is the nastiest shade of a nuclear peach that you've ever seen in your life. It has nothing to do with any human skin tone on the planet. And these legs were so good at being waterproof that they were buoyant. So when I'd go off the high dive, I'd go down and come straight back up feet first. They were the bane of my existence. But then at the Jersey shore one summer, by the time we get there, there's like 300 yards of towels between me and the sea. And I know this is where I first honed my ability to run. Really f I was the white flash, I didn't want to feel hundreds of pairs of eyes staring at me. And so I get myself into the ocean and you know, I was a good swimmer, but no amount of swimming technique to control buoyant legs. At some point I get caught in a rip current and I'm migrating from my vantage point of where I could see my parents towel and I'm like taking in water and I'm fighting, fighting, fighting. And all I could think to do was pop off these legs and put one under each armp with the peach feet sticking up and just bob like, just wait. Just like someone's gotta find me, you know, And a lifeguard did. And I'm sure he will collect for therapy bills. You know, you can see it like they don't show that on Baywatch.
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Amy Mullins
But.
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Tech Announcer
They saved my life, those legs. And then when I was 14, it was Easter Sunday and I was going to be wearing a dress that I had purchased with my own money for the first thing I ever bought that wasn't on sale. Momentous event. You never forget it. I had a paper route Since I was 12 and I went to the limited and I bought this dress that I thought was the height of sophistication. Sleeveless safari dress, belted, hits the knee. Coming downstairs in the living room, my father's waiting to take us to church. He takes one look at me and he says, that doesn't look right. Go upstairs and change. I was like, my super classy dress. What are you talking about? It's the best thing I own. He said, no, you can see the knee joint when you walk. It doesn't look right. It's inappropriate. To go out like that, go change. And I think something snapped in me. I refused to change. And it was the first time I defied my father. I refused to hide something about myself that was true. And I refused to be embarrassed about something so that other people could feel more comfortable. And I was grounded for that defiance. And so after church, the extended family convenes at my grandmother's house. And everybody's complimenting me on how nice I look in this dress. And I'm like, really? You think I look nice? Because my parents think I look inappropriate. And I outed them. Kind of mean, really. But I think the public utterance of this idea that I should somehow hide myself was so shocking to hear that it changed their mind about why they were doing it. You know, I had always managed to get through life with somewhat of a positive attitude, but I think this was the start of me being able to accept myself, you know, okay, I'm not normal. I have strengths, I got weaknesses. It is what it is. And I had always been athletic. But it wasn't until college that I started this adventure in track and field. I had gone through a lifetime of being given legs that just barely got me by. And I thought, well, maybe I'm just having the wrong conversations with the wrong people. Maybe I need to go find people who say, yes, we can create anything for you in the space between where your leg ends and the ground. And so I started working with engineers, fashion designers, sculptors, Hollywood prosthetic makeup artists, wax museum designers to build legs for me. And I decided I wanted to be the fastest woman in the world on artificial legs. And I was lucky enough to arrive in track at just the right time to be the first person to get these radical sprinting legs modeled after the hind leg of a cheetah, the fastest thing that runs. Woven carbon fiber. And I was able to set three world records with those legs. And they made no attempt at approximating humanness. But then I got these incredibly lifelike silicone legs, hand painted capillaries, veins. Hey, I can be as tall as I want to be. So I get different legs for different heights. I don't have to shave. I can wear open toed shoes in the winter. And I can, most importantly, I can opt out of the cankles I most certainly would have inherited genetically. So then I get these legs made for me by the late, great Alexander McQueen. And they were hand carved of solid ash with grapevines and magnolias all over them. Six inch heel. And I was able to walk runways of the world with Supermodels. And I was suddenly in this whirlwind of adventure and excitement, and, you know, I was being invited to go around the world and speak about these adventures. And now I had, you know, legs that looked like glass legs covered in feathers, porcelain legs, jellyfish legs, all wearable sculpture. And I get this call from a guy who had seen me speak years ago when I was at the beginning of my track career. And he says, we loved it. We loved it. We want you to come back. And it was clear to me he didn't know all these amazing things that had happened to me since my sports career. So as I'm telling him, he says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. Amy, the reason everybody liked you all those years ago was because you were this sweet, vulnerable, naive girl. And I'm afraid that if you walk on stage today and you are this polished young woman with too many accomplishments, for real, he said that I'm afraid they won't like you. Wow. He apparently didn't think I was vulnerable enough. Now he was asking me to be less than a little more downtrodden. He was asking me to disable myself for him and his audience. And what was so shocking to me about that was that I realized I'd moved past mere acceptance of my difference. I was having fun with my difference. Thank God I'm not normal. I get to be extraordinary, and I'll decide what is a weakness and what might be a strength. And so I refused his request. And a few days later, I'm walking in downtown Manhattan at a street fair, and I get this tug on my shirt, and I look down at this little girl I had met a year earlier, when she was at a pivotal moment in her life. She had been born with a brittle bone disease that resulted in her left leg being 7cm shorter than her right. And she wore a brace and orthopedic shoes. And it got her by. But she wanted to do more. And like all Internet savvy kindergarteners, she gets on the computer and Google's new leg, and she comes up with dozens of images of prosthetics, many of them mine. And she prints them out, goes to school, does show and tell on it, comes home and makes a startling pronouncement to her parents. I want to get rid of my bad leg, she says, when can I get a new leg? And ultimately, that was the decision her parents and doctors made for her. And so here she was, six months after the amputation, and right there in the middle of this street fair, she hikes up her jeans leg to show me her cool new leg and it's pink and it's tattooed with the characters of High School Musical 3, replete with red sequined Mary Janes on her feet. And she was proud of it. She was proud of herself. And the marvelous thing was that this six year old understood something that it took me 20 something years to get. But we did both discover that when we can celebrate and truly own what it is that makes us different, we're able to find the source of our greatest creative power. Thank you.
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Sarah Austin Janess
That was Amy Mullins. Amy said that when she was little, health insurance provided her with only one set of new prosthetics every three years and kids grow fast, so these legs never fit and were barely functional. Now she has 12 pairs of legs in total, with many others from fashion and art collaborations donated to museums. Amy told her story at an event we produced for USA Network's Characters Unite tour with Moth stories on prejudice and discrimination. The tour hit five cities, including New Orleans, and you'll hear some New Orleans teens at the end of this program. The Moth Radio Hour will continue in a moment. When we come back, we'll hear a somber story from a mom who just wants to make her son proud. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts and presented by the Public Radio Exchange prx.org the Moth is supported by audible.com Audible content includes an unmatched selection of audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible content is downloaded and played back on your smartphone, portable device or your PC. The Moth listeners might enjoy the Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Audible is offering the Moth listeners a free 30 day trial membership. Go to audible.com themoth browse their unmatched selection of audio programs, download a free title and start listening. It's that easy. Go to audible.com audience.com the moth all one word. That's audible.com themoth and get started today. This is the Moth Radio Hour from prx. I'm Sarah Austin Janess, producing director of the Moth. Up next is Serdena Walker. She's from Springfield, Massachusetts. And that's where the story takes place. When she came to New York to tell it at the Public Library, people weren't prepared for what they heard, so we want to prepare you. The story is serious and may be too intense for children. Here's Serdiner live at the mall.
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Amy Mullins
I have four children. One of them is not with me right now, but my oldest is Dominique, she's 17. My oldest son, Carl was 11 years old, and my younger son Charles is 7, and my youngest daughter, Gloria, 6 years old. My son Carl was what you would call, described as a mama's boy. He always was with me. Well, all of my children are always with me. And we always did so many things together, fun things like Harry Potter movies and just hanging out and watching DVDs together. We did everything together. When he started middle school, I knew almost immediately that something was different and something was wrong. And I asked Carl, I said, you know, how's school going, Carl? And he told me that there were some kids at school that were calling him names. And I asked him, I said, what are they calling you? And he said that they were calling him gay. You act like you're gay. You act like a faggot. Those were the names that they were calling him. And I was so outraged and mad because this was my baby. And I knew that he was going to school where kids were picking on him and I wanted to do something about it. You have to understand, I'm a single parent. I have four children. All four of my children are involved in sports and Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts. And so even though I have a. A hard time juggling at all, I still made time to join the PTO at Carle school because I realized that the school needed my help. It was a charter school and it was kind of disorganized. They didn't start meetings on time. They looked like they needed a lot of help. And I'm a type of go getter and I wanted to give them that help. Then one day on April 6, as I was cooking dinner, well, before I was cooking dinner, Carl came to me and he told me that there had been a fight at his school. He got into a fight with another student who happened to be a girl, and she threatened to kill him. She called him gay. And he told me that the mediation was that they had to sit together at lunch for the rest of the week and that he had been threatened, they both had been threatened with a five day suspension. And he was very upset because Carl is very smart. He is an honor roll student and he takes pride in all of his projects. He always got an A in all of his projects. And he didn't want to disappoint me because he didn't want to be suspended from school. And of course he agreed to sit with the girl and the girl didn't want to sit with him. I was so upset that night. I kept trying to tell Carl, that they cannot suspend you from school if they don't contact your parent. Nobody from your school has called me today. They have my email. They have my cell phone. They have my work phone. They have our home phone. Nobody from the school has called me. Today on April 6, 2009, I was cooking dinner and I was upset. And I was telling Carl that, you know, you can't be upset. I'm going to, you know, we're going to figure it out. We're going to. We're going to work through this. I'm just upset, Carl. I was making cheeseburgers, and I make a salad because we're all trying to eat healthy. And Carl went upstairs to his room. I told my mom, I said, you know, I'm going to take Carl tonight to the PTO meeting because I'm going to get to the bottom of this. Because that's what usually happened. Carl would say one thing, the school would tell me something else. And somehow the truth was somewhere in the middle. I called Carl's name from the back hallway. You know, come on down to, you know, to eat. And he didn't respond. But, you know, he and Dominique were on the third floor. So sometimes when I call them, they don't respond to me. So I wasn't alarmed or anything. I went upstairs and that's when I found my Carl. Somehow he had managed to take an extension cord and tie it around the railing upstairs. And that's how I found him. Horrified that I found my baby like that. What do you do? What do you do? I tried to hold him up, but he was so heavy. I tried so hard. The next day, I received a phone call from the superintendent. He offered his condolences. The mayor of our city and the city council president offered their condolences, but nobody really wanted to help me to understand why this happened to me. We had overcome so many hardships. I was a victim of domestic violence like Carl's dad. I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was pregnant. We lost our home and we moved into a hotel and we were homeless. But somehow I had lost my baby to a school that was unsafe. I cried and I cried, and I still cry. I didn't want people to think that there was a newspaper clipping that said there was a suicide on our street and it gave our address. Then people would come up to me and they were saying, well, was he depressed? Did he seem sad? Well, you know, when you look back, you know, Carl's personality had started to change. He was playing roughhousing with his Younger brother and sister. And he would be. He would interact with them, and he would be, I think, unnecessarily rough. Maybe he was acting out because of what happened to him in school. I knew I couldn't get any support on the Massachusetts level because everyone was politically connected and the charter school was politically connected. So who could help me? So someone said, call the Massachusetts charter school association. And they told me. They said, well, if there's a policy in place, that's all we'll do is review their policy. Nobody cared. No one cared. But what could I say who would listen to me? A single parent who has so many issues and problems, and now I have a child that's no longer here. I started receiving cards and letters from across the country. People started telling me that their child had been bullied or that they were bullies themselves or victims themselves when they were growing up. What could I do? I wanted to share my story and Carl's story to anyone that would listen to me. I had the opportunity to testify before congress. I told them about my beautiful boy, Carl, and how they would be proud to have them as their son. I told them how, you know, when president Obama was elected president, that we stayed up past Carl's bedtime because he was so excited. And when president Obama, the election results came in, I said to Carl, you see, Carl, you can do anything you want to do. President Obama was raised by a single parent, just like me, and look how he turned out. I talked to the school, you know, with my concerns. Nobody cared. But I started finding my voice. I found my voice through being an advocate for safe schools, for being an advocate through the safe schools improvement act, trying to talk to anybody that had any kind of power in America so that they could talk to their representatives and their senators and plead to them the importance of this important legislation so that all of our children could be safe. No matter what I did or what I do, it will never bring Carl back. And I felt like I had failed Carl in life, and I vowed I would never fail Carl in death. So I started talking to my representative. Shortly after the testimony, Representative Neal said, what can I do, sir? Diener, to help you? I said, representative, you can sign on to the safe schools improvement act. And he said, I'll do that. I've had a chance to talk to senator Carey's staff. Senator Carey signed on to the safe schools improvement act. As I think back over my life these past 18 months, I never asked God, why. Why me?
- [28:28]
Serdina Walker
God?
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Amy Mullins
I see now that Carl was part of a bigger plan, and I was just a part of it. Also, as his mother, Carl's legacy will be that we will have safe schools for all of our children, regardless of their economic levels or backgrounds. Regardless. I reflect back on a mom that I met who's so very different from me, who lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. She said to me, I wish that I could have your voice. And I said to her, I will be your voice. I will speak for you and I will speak for all of the families that are suffering right now and whose children are not safe in their schools. So where are we today? Through strength, through hope, we have the victory. As of December 31st of this year, every school in Massachusetts will have a plan in place. And every person, bus driver, bus monitor, teacher, janitor, cafeteria worker, will have to report any incidents of bullying. And parents will be notified. Not only the parents, not only the parents of the child that is being bullied, but the parents of the child that is doing the bullying. That's the law. That's the law. And I know that Carl is so very proud of me and I miss him so much. And I thank you for listening to my story.
- [31:00]
Sarah Austin Janess
That was Serdina Walker. Serdina is used to speaking out on teenage bullying, but this was her first Moth story. Stories at the Moth are personal and emotional and sometimes explore very dark moments, but our audiences embrace that. Someone once said it's like everyone in the Moth audience is holding hands under the table, sending love silently rooting. The night Serdiner told her story, we all wept and the roof lifted. For more information on the Safe Schools Improvement act, go to themoth.org you are listening to the Moth Radio Hour. The next story is from a Moth night called New York Stories, where famous people and students tell stories together. This teller is about as New York as you can get. It's former New York Mayor Ed Koch. Here's Mayor Koch live at the mall.
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Serdina Walker
When I was 19, I was drafted. It was World War II and I was sent to Spartanburg, South Carolina. And I was not a particularly physical kid. In fact, I had a tough time getting over the obstacle course, but I practiced. I'd go back at night at 5 o'clock and practice so I could get over the obstacle course. And the members of the platoon and company that I was a part of were from New York city. And about 25% of them were Jewish kids. They weren't very physical. And 75% were kids from Hell's Kitchen and Clinton. I mean, it was a totally different, divisive environment for us. And when we had the day planned, they planned it for us. Of course, there would be seminars in addition to the physical aspects of it. And with respect to the obstacle course, the 75% others were much better than the 25% that I referred to. But when they came to map reading and a whole host of subjects that the army wanted you to be proficient in, it was the Jewish kids who would either raise their hands and ask questions or get up and provide the answers. And the others were very unhappy. And there came a point, and basic training is 17 weeks in those days. There came a point when every time a Jewish kid would get up and raise his hand, one of the others, his name peculiarly, I mean, it sounds so crazy because it's so Hollywood. His name was actually Jack LaRue. And when a Jewish kid would raise his hand, LaRue would say, who's the next year? That was. He's going to raise his hand. And that went on, and it. It seared my soul. I thought to myself, what can I do? I mean, I'm not very strong. This kid beat the shit out of me. But I said, I'm going to train myself. And I did. I tried to put myself into shape. And when the 15th week came, there were two left, and we're out in the field and there's a seminar, and the same thing happened. Jewish kid raised his hand and Jack said, who's the next Yid? And when the lecture was over, I went over to him and I grabbed him by the neck and I said, when we get back to the battalion, we're going to have this out. And he didn't know what it was all about because I could get over the obstacle course. He said, what's wrong? What's wrong? And I couldn't tell him what was wrong. I said, you know, you know. And then I could hear yelling around me, and somebody yelling, what's happening? And somebody else yelled, come on over. They're going to kill the Jews. And we went back to the battalion, and it was really very gentlemanly. They had gloves, and we had three rounds, and he knocked me down in each of the rounds, and I got up in each of the rounds, and there's no question but that he won the fight. But the moral of the story is there were two further weeks of basic training, and the seminars were part of it. And there was never, in the course of those two weeks, an anti Semitic slur. And I felt I had done something. Thank you.
- [38:01]
Sarah Austin Janess
That was former New York mayor Ed Koch. I asked if the event in the story was a first for him. And he said, you know, yes, it was the first time I ever stood up for something. Then he thought for a minute and said, fighting for what you believe is worth it, even if you might not win. You can see photos of him in the Student Storytellers from the evening@themost.org to learn about all of our programs, go to themoth.org where you can also check out our free weekly podcast. If you have a story to share, you can tell us about it right on our website. In a moment, we'll hear three stories from a moth workshop we taught at Grace King High School in New Orleans. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and presented by by the Public Radio Exchange. PRX.org.
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Tech Announcer
SA.
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Sarah Austin Janess
This is the Moth Radio Hour from PRX. I'm Sarah Austin. Janess. Next you'll hear three stories from our Moth Shop education program. We've started to expand our teen storytelling programs nationally. We go to a city and work for a week with high school students, and all of that work ends with the kids telling their stories in front of their classmates in a full school assembly. Here's Axel Gutierrez, a junior at Grace King High School in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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Tech Reviewer
So I'm 11 years old, and that's the last time I saw my dad. I remember the day before he left. We made a barbecue and we went to the beach and we had a good time. And then he said he was gonna leave. So I was really sad because my dad meant a lot for me and he was a good dad because one day I was having troubles in school because I didn't know how to divide. And then he, he taught me how to divide, and he gave me 10 divisions to do it. And I was like, I didn't want to get any of them wrong because I wanted to always make him proud. And at the end of the day, it took like five hours to do the divisions. And I got one wrong. And then he said, it's all right. It's the only one wrong the school. And then on Monday, the day he. The day he said he was going to. He was going to leave. And I wanted to see him for the last time because it's my dad and. And I love him a lot. And I'm coming back from school and I'm like almost running to the house, and I see my stepmother sitting on the couch, and I asked her, where's my dad? And then she said, he left. And I'm confused because I'm asking To myself, why he didn't want to say bye to me or anything like that. And then she says, he said he didn't want to say bye to you because then he's not going to leave because it's going to be. He's gonna feel bad about leaving you and your brother and me. And I went to my room, and I just started thinking, like, why he didn't say bye to me. So that weekend, my mom went to the house, and then she wanted to pick me up because she said I couldn't be living with my stepmother because she's not part of my family or she doesn't love me or whatever. A year after that, my mom leaves, too. She comes to the United States, to California. And then I feel alone because she left me with a friend, with a good friend of her. And I wanted to be with my mom or my dad, either one of them, because they're really special for me. And I used to talk to my dad on the phone because I got his phone number. And then I came over here to live with my mom to New Orleans, and I would still talk to my dad. And one day I called my dad, and then we started talking about stuff. And then he tells me. He comes. He comes out with this, telling me that if 20 years pass and then he doesn't talk to me, or I get mad at him that he's always going to remember me and then he's always going to love me. A month after that, I was going to start school. It was going to be my first day. And I tell my dad I need money to buy the uniform and some shoes because I just want to say I have a dad and that he's supporting me. And I was going to buy some shoes, and he started complaining about giving me that money. And I got really mad at him, and I hung up the phone with him. And I was really mad at him. Not because he didn't give me the money, because he didn't want to support me. And all the stuff that he told me about going to school, he was, like, letting me down when I started making him proud of me. And then four years passed. We never talk again in four years. And I miss him a lot. I don't even know if he's alive or if he's still dead or where he lives. And every. Every day I think about him. I think about what I. What has he done and where is he at or if he's still alive or dead. But I consider myself a lucky guy because at least I Got to meet my dad. And many guys and girls don't even know who their parents are. Thank you.
- [45:17]
Sarah Austin Janess
That was Axel Gutierrez. Now here's Tyyana Robinson, a freshman at Grace King High School.
- [45:26]
Axel Gutierrez
When I walked into the gym of St. Joan of Arc for the first time, all I saw were white people. And I thought to myself, what am I doing here? I went to St. Joan of Arc because I got good grades, and I was an AV student, and I was a good kid. And when I first got to St. Joan of Arc, I made a couple of friends. They were, like, the only black girls in my whole grade. And I was like, why not fit in with them? And we hung out for a while, and it was good. And one day we were talking about shoes, and this one girl, she got really, really angry, and she was like, what? You don't know anything. You're such an idiot. She tried to be conniving and make other people not want to talk to me. And she was like, why are you here? Why are you following us? I was so shocked by what she had said because I thought we were friends. And I stopped walking, and I was so dumbfounded by what she had said. So after that, I kind of stayed to myself. I was a loner, I guess. I really didn't have anyone to talk to or hang out with at lunch. And they had this thing at lunch where you would go up and you would grab the microphone and you would sing Happy Birthday to your friend. And at my birthday, I didn't have anyone to do that. So my grades started falling. I got an F in math, and I just didn't care. I wasn't doing my homework. I just walk in detention. And they had a time where I had spent, like, a whole month in detention. And I realized I kind of like detention because I liked that people had to be around me so I wasn't so alone every day. And after that, I was tired of feeling sorry for myself. I was like, I ain't gonna be a loner no more. I'm tired of dietician. I'm tired of getting Fs and all this. And I went up and I was like. And I was like, today, I'm gonna make a friend. I don't care what I have to do. I'm gonna make a friend today. So there was this girl, Peyton, I had met at the beginning of the school year. And I was like, okay, maybe I'll make a friend today. And I was sitting on a sidewalk, and I got up, and I walked up to her and I was like, hey, Peyton, can I walk with you? She was like, yeah. And I was like, thank God I finally made a friend. I'm not lonely anymore. This is great. And on the last day of school, the ranked leader of the group, Jessica, who had once told me, why are you following us? I had told her, so you're never going to see me again as a joke. And she looked away from me and she was like, thank God. And it really didn't matter at that point because I had finally got an A in math and I had made a friend and I was going to a new school. So she really didn't matter at that point. Thank you.
- [48:40]
Sarah Austin Janess
That was Tyona Roberts. Next up, here's Alexis Garcia, a senior at Grace King High School.
- [48:47]
Tyyana Robinson
It was a Monday morning and it was 1:00am and I had work in seven hours. I was at the hospital with my 10 month old daughter, screaming, crying. I was holding her. We went into the doctor's office, I was with my mom and as the doctor walked in, he turned automatically to my mom, even though I was holding my daughter and told her, so what's wrong with your child? That really hurt my feelings because as a teen mom a lot of people don't want to accept that there's teen moms. So I automatically stood up, answered, you know, kind of with an attitude because it was bothering me. Well, he kind of jerked his head back and it's like just because I was 18 at the time and even though I had braces and stuff, I guess I looked like I was 16. So they don't expect it to be my child. Well, we went into the X ray room and my little girl got her X rays. We waited an hour and the doctor came back and my little girl was diagnosed with swine flu plus rsv, which are both deadly and fatal to children, especially babies. And being that my daughter was only 10 months, it was 50, 50, whether life or death situation, you know, she stayed in the hospital for two days. That Wednesday I went to work and I worked at a daycare. I was in charge of 122 year olds. So it was a big class. And I just remember just being so stressed out from knowing my daughter was in the hospital and just everything just was like my world was tumbling down. The next day I got in my car and I drove to work. Halfway on the ride my tire got a flat and I had to call into work and me and my manager don't get along because the two days I called in that I couldn't make it to work because my daughter was in the hospital. She had an attitude with me, and as soon as she heard my voice say, hello, you know, I'm not gonna be able to make it into work, she was like, you either come in or you're fired, and hung up on me. So I was like, you know what? I'm fired. I just remember worrying about the money and just the bills I had to pay and for my daughter. And so I just decided, you know, I just drove home after AAA came and changed my tire. I went home, laid in my bed, and just started thinking about how I was just sick of dealing with all this. I didn't want to deal with, you know, people like that. And I finally came to the decision. I'm going back to school because I dropped out my senior year when I had her. So now I'm 20 years old and I'm in high school. I'm a senior, and my little girl is now two years old. And.
- [51:44]
Tech Announcer
Thank you.
- [51:51]
Tyyana Robinson
And I now have her at the same daycare. So the first day of school, I walked past, the lady smiled, brought my little girl to her class. So, you know, as a nice person, I said, have a nice day. And I just had a smirk and I walked out because in the end, I won. She didn't win that battle. She was just trying to put me down. And I'm a single senior this year, but I will graduate and I will crawl across the stage at the end of the year if I have to. Thank you.
- [52:28]
Sarah Austin Janess
That was Alexis garcia. All three of those teen stories came from our characters unite tour in new orleans, louisiana. For video clips of the teen stories, check the Moth's YouTube. If you want to hear more moth, go to themoth.org where you can learn all about our programs. All of the stories you heard today are available at the iTunes store. Just search for the best of the moth. That's it for the moth radio hour. I hope you'll join us next time. Your host this hour was Sarah Austin Janess the moss producing director. Sarah also directed the stories in the hour with teen story coaching by Maggie sino and Kate tellers. The rest of the moss directorial staff includes Kathryn burns, Sarah haberman, Jennifer hickson and Meg bowles. Production support from jenna weiss berman and Brandon echter. The moss shop community education coordinator is Larry Rosen. Most stories are true is remembered and affected by the storytellers. Moth events are recorded by argo studios in New York city supervised by Paul ruest. Our theme music is by the drift. Other music in this hour from Roberto Sierra Helios and Tin Hat Trio. The Moth is produced for radio by me, Jay Allison at Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, with help from Vicki Merrick. This hour was produced with funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. The Moth Radio Hour is presented by the public radio exchange. Prx.org for more about our podcast, for information on pitching your own story and everything else, go to our website, themoth.org.