Still Existing and Bucket Listing: The Moth Radio Hour
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What stories of joy and dreams are shared in this episode?
This is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Sarah Austin Janess. Storytellers find the moth, and we find storytellers, sometimes in strange and curious ways. One spring day, I got a text from my friend Faith Saley, a former storyteller. She said, I've just met a man named Jordy Ponce. You should talk with him about telling a moth story. But time is of the essence. So I called Jordy. Jordy, do you remember our first phone call? And what were you thinking?
I have been a longtime moth listener. And to actually meet you, I was shocked.
Jordy and I worked on his story together for weeks, and he told it live at our yearly Moth main stage in collaboration with Greenwood Cemetery in front of 800 people. His story gives context for this episode, which is called Still Existing and Bucket Listing. Here's Jordy Ponce live at the Moth.
I'm a psychologist by profession, and when I tell people that, they either do one of two things. They clam up, or then they start spilling their guts. And I've always been kind of analytical, cerebral. I like figuring people out. I like helping people. And so it's been a really good fit for me. And in 2022, I got the opportunity of a lifetime with a job offer to work at the esteemed Moffitt Cancer Center, where I would get to help cancer patients go through all aspects of their cancer journeys. I was so excited. And about two weeks before my start date, I thought to myself, Jordy, you really ought to get this stomachache checked out that has been kind of lingering. And so I drove myself one morning to an ER because it felt like my organs were about to explode.
Actually, I drove myself first to a dentist appointment because those are a real pain to reschedule. And then I drove myself to the ER. I'm responsible. I'm responsible. And I thought it was just gonna be something easy like colitis, pancreatitis, gingivitis, something just needed a pill. But the doctor came back in and he looked really nervous and he started making weird small talk like, where's your family? How quickly could they get here? And I was like, this is not good. And then he seemed to be getting more and more nervous, and finally he came out with it. He said, Jordy, we found what appears to be cancer throughout your liver. And I was like, what? And then I distinctly remember him breathing a sigh of relief and saying, oh, I just hate delivering life-changing news like this.
And being a psychologist, of course, I said, I thought you did great. How do you feel about it? As they wheeled me up to the inpatient units like some sort of Faberge egg, I thought many things, one of which was, what am I gonna tell Moffitt Cancer Center, my future employer? I mean, how do you make that call? Hi, this is Dr. Ponce. How firm would you say that start date is? Meanwhile, hospital machines are like beeping in the background. So I decided the first person I would actually call was my attorney. That's what I call my sister because she's a criminal defense lawyer in Tampa. And within about 20 minutes, she was Tokyo drifting into the parking lot of the hospital, bounding up to my room and saying, I've already talked to multiple people about getting you in to see a specialist.
I was just really happy to see a familiar face. Soon we were playing rock, paper, scissors to see who would have to call our parents. I won, but somehow I still had to call them, which is what happens when you have an attorney in the family. They were soon racing frantically up to meet us. I eventually did call Moffitt. I spoke to my future supervisor from my hospital room and I was sort of frantic. I was like, I know this is hard to believe, but like, I just got diagnosed with cancer. I'm at the hospital. I don't know what to do about this job. I don't know what to tell you. I'm really scared. And she was fantastic. Deanne, she said, first of all, I'm gonna pray for you. Secondly, we're going to hold this job.
You just focus on your health. I was super relieved to have that sort of taken care of for the time being, but also pretty nervous because I didn't know what the future would hold and if I would ever be able to take that job.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What stories of joy and dreams are shared in this episode?
0:13–5:29
2
How does Jordie Poncy's story reflect living in the moment?
5:29–8:40
3
What unexpected challenges does Mike Sela face during his daughter's birthday?
8:40–17:24
4
What lessons does Samantha Williams learn from whitewater rafting?
17:24–38:50
5
How does Eric Schur's journey to Pixar unfold?
38:50–50:38