This is the Moth Radio Hour, and I'm Suzanne Rust.

This hour features stories about gumption.

Gumption.

I love that word.

It is variously defined as the intelligence needed to know what to do and courage and strength

of mind.

And that is what our stories today all have in common.

We'll be hearing from a woman who learns that the only person she needs to please is herself,

a young man standing up for who he is, a dad conquering his

fears, and a mother learning a little magical thinking from her daughter. Let's start our tales of

fortitude with Pamela Mitchell, who shared this chapter of her life back in 2003 in New York City.

Here's Pamela live at the mall.

In 1964, three weeks before I was born, the Civil Rights Act was passed, and my mother was glad that her daughter would never know a world

where she wouldn't be able to go into a restaurant or a theater or use a bathroom just because she was black.

That same year, my grandparents, who were lifelong Baptists, converted to Catholicism.

They wanted, yes, that's right.

They wanted their younger children and their grandchildren to have access to a better education,

which in their mind meant Catholic, because education was the way to a better life. So I spent 16 years in Catholic

schools. And I was very studious and serious. And in fact, I wanted to become a librarian,

which, you know, in those days, was like being a nun for lay people.

But, you know, thankfully, I came to my senses on that one.

But still, I had a very, very lonely childhood.

...