Monica Padman

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.

It's more about the music and camping.

It's still kind of dirty and hot and people get into it, but it's a little different than the Renaissance Fair vibe.

So at the Folk Festival, there's also this family-friendly area where there's like kids' activities and kids' music, and it's in this nice, shady, grassy area.

And every year at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, this circus troupe called the Give and Take Jugglers perform, and I had seen them throughout my childhood.

Over the years, they were kind of like a staple in Philadelphia.

They would perform at school assemblies and camps and my Girl Scout troop.