Chapter 1: What themes are explored in this episode of The Moth?
Welcome to The Moth. I'm Suzanne Rust. A few days ago, we shared a Moth Radio Hour all about shoes. But on this episode, we're going to be talking about a different type of soul. Yes, we're going from the soul of your shoe to the soul inside you, with stories about connections, bonds, being there for the people we love, and all the things that make you you. First up, we have Heather McGee.
She told this at a Chicago story slam where the theme of the night was baggage. Here's Heather live with them all.
So when I was a teenager, I had so much social anxiety, like crippling. I was from a really big family with a million brothers and sisters, so you might be surprised to see that as a characteristic of me. But we were fundamentalists. I was homeschooled. We were very isolated. I lived out with the cows in cornfields. Now, my mom was a real teacher.
She actually gave me a great education being homeschooled. However, she also knew I wanted to go to college. And to go to college, when you have a million kids, you don't have a lot of money. I needed scholarships. And if I was going to get a scholarship, I needed to go to a traditional school. So when I turned 14, my mom enrolled me in a regular high school. This was terrifying to me.
Going to the lunchroom and figuring out where to sit was the most horrifying thing to me every day. I spent the entirety of my high school experience being scared to be seen or heard or have to interact with anyone while getting an A-plus in every class. So anyway, when we got to my senior year, I found out we were taking a senior trip to Spain for 10 days.
And to someone who had only been to the Super Walmart in my tiny town, this was both thrilling and really overwhelming. I also didn't have a suitcase.
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Chapter 2: How did Heather McGee's pink suitcase symbolize her journey?
And I didn't know how I was going to get that suitcase because we didn't have the money to get a suitcase. So I was really worried about this. And I brought it up to my granny. Now, my granny was not a part of our fundamentalist religious community. She was the opposite. She wore Betty Boop sweatshirts. She wore cheetah print. She wore a t-shirt that said, I'm sexy. And she was in her 70s.
So anyway, I was really worried about this. And I explained my situation to my granny. She was like, oh, I've got a suitcase. You can just take mine. She pulled it out of a closet, and I about died.
Because what she showed me as a incredibly shy person who was about to go on the first big trip, first trip of her life with a bunch of classmates who I desperately wanted to impress, she pulled out the loudest, hugest,
Chapter 3: What challenges did Heather face during her high school years?
pink tie-dye hard side suitcase that anyone has ever seen in their life. And it wasn't just pink on the outside. It was pink on the inside with a lovely shade of Pepto-Bismol. And it was also loud in an actual way. There were some clips on it that when you locked it and you had to punch it to make it close, made the loudest noise you have also ever heard in your life.
I was mortified, but I was also too shy to turn my granny down and I needed a suitcase, so I took it. My entire mission in life at that time was to blend in with the wallpaper, and I knew me and that bright pink suitcase were going to Spain whether I liked it or not, and I would be seen and heard also whether I liked it or not.
So I showed up at the airport with my big pink suitcase, relegated to my fate. I channeled the power of my granny as I lugged that monstrosity across the floor to the ticket counter. got on that plane, got myself to Spain. We were going to a few different places, so I opened it, closed it. Those clips got louder with every time I opened and closed it.
And I was shocked on that trip because it turns out my classmates thought my suitcase was cool. They liked the color because it stood out. They thought the clicky, loud locks were hilarious. And you know, as we were going from place to place, I think I started to take on the power of that suitcase. Because I started to feel proud. Nobody else had a suitcase like this. Their suitcases were black.
They were brown. They were gray. Their locks were quiet. And I just really took that in. And I started thinking about what this pink suitcase actually meant. You know, my granny lived her life at 100%. She had so many friends. She went on big trips. She was the kind of person that bought a crazy pink suitcase. She was in a choir. She taught me how to dance in her living room.
She lived life to the fullest at every moment, at every second. But it hadn't always been like that. When she was 18, she married my grandpa, and my grandpa proceeded to spend the entirety of his life trying to kill her. He put her head in the oven more than once, sent her to the hospital more than once. I think the day that my grandpa died is the day that her life really started.
And when I got back from Spain, I was standing at the airport waiting for a baggage claim for my bag. total ugly suitcase came out of the chute. But this time when it came around the carousel, instead of being embarrassed, I picked it up proudly. And now when I think about it, I think about it as more than just a pink suitcase.
It was a lesson that my granny taught me that I pull into my own life about how don't let the bad things in life keep you from being your wildest, boldest, pinkest self.
That was Heather McGee. Heather is an Emmy and Cannes Lion Award-winning founder and host of the Happily Never After podcast, which takes a look at how life's endings can lead to a new beginning. She is currently working on her debut memoir about growing up in a fundamentalist Christian sect.
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Chapter 4: How did Heather's grandmother influence her confidence?
So like, I'm good either way. And she said, I think you should make the fewest decisions possible. And I realized that was correct. And there's this place called Sweetgrass Weddings, and they will do as much as you ask them to do. They did everything but buy my dress, basically. And I called them, and I was talking to them about our situation, and I really liked their vibe.
And I said, be honest, can we even get married in October? And she said, well, do you want to get married in a barn or a barn or a historical building? And I was like, ooh, historical building, please. And she said, yeah, you can get married October 24. And I just said, let's do it. And I sent her a check, and I wrote some deposits.
And we emailed out wedding invitations because we did not have time to wait for the Postal Service. And everything was happening all of a sudden. So people were starting to RSVP, and they were buying plane tickets. And my mom called, and she said, I have some good news. She said, they did a different kind of scan, and it looks like... I don't think that my mom is a liar.
I think you guys think that, but she's not. I don't think my mom's a liar. And she said, they think it's going to be scar tissue and they think that I'm going to be okay. And I was so happy and I was so relieved. And then I just said, I just planned a wedding in six weeks. And she said, I know, I feel so terrible. I feel so bad that we rushed you into doing this so quickly.
And like, I almost didn't even know if I should tell you. And I was like, oh my God, like.
always tell me when you're not dying like I always I always have time for it and I said no it's fine Eric and I are gonna get married and you're gonna be okay and it's great and and it's gonna be great and on October 24th I went to the venue and I was gonna see my wedding for the first time and I started to get a little nervous because I don't really like weddings or ceremonies or things that involve like a lot of fuss but I also know that like
Planning a big event and celebrating a thing and fussing over details is how you show that things matter. And now that I know my mom is going to be OK, I'm starting to realize how much this really matters to me. And I walked in, and it was perfect. It was vibrant and colorful and lively and a little weird and a little irreverent. And it was just great.
Um, and after the wedding, people kept saying like, Oh my God, it just felt so much like you and Eric, which was exactly what I wanted. And I could not have planned anything half that good. And my parents were there. My mom was there and Eric's parents were there. And my 90 year old grandmother was there and our 10 year old nephew was there.
And it was a great day and I could have never planned it, but I could make it happen once I had the right motivation.
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