Monica Padman

I didn't want to compete.

Object manipulation, they call it.

Oh, object manipulation.

So if there was like a school talent show, that was my jam.

So my story begins in 2011 in Philadelphia.

I was 24 and I was fresh out of college, figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.

I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go in.

And I thought maybe I wanted to be a teacher, work with kids.

I had all these part-time seasonal jobs.

I had a degree in music and English, so neither one super useful.

And I was thinking about going back to school to get my teaching degree.

But at this point, I was about to leave for an outdoor education job that was going to be in Massachusetts for three months.

And before I left, I got this call from an old high school friend

And she told me that she had extra tickets to the Philadelphia Folk Festival the next day.

Her parents weren't going to use their tickets and wanted to know if I wanted to join.

And I said, sure, that sounds like fun.

So I go to this folk festival.

And the Philly Folk Festival is really fun.

It's folk music, banjos, guitars, lots of hippies wearing tie-dye.

No, none of that.