Welcome to the Moth Podcast. I'm your host this week,

Dame Wilburn. Look, the world is strange right now.

Now, we don't all get along and we don't

all have the same perspective on things, but I think we can pretty much

all agree that this is a strange time

we're living in. And with so much of this out of our control,

the decisions we do get to make for ourselves become all the more important.

So in this week's episode, we have two stories about getting your life together

and taking matters into your own hands. First up is Ashley Johnson.

Ashley told this story at a Washington DC story slam where the theme of the

night was awards. Here's Ashley, live at the Moth.

I am originally from Maryland and I knew at a young age that I wanted to be a

professional actress. I was one of those weird kids who would lock myself in

the bathroom and look in the mirror and make myself cry because I was getting

prepared for all the dramatic roles that I was going to play.

So I decided that after I graduated from college that I was going to move to

Los Angeles. So three months after graduating, I moved to LA.

The place where dreams come true. Well, let's just say that things didn't quite

work out how I thought they would when I got there. So I ended up getting a

corporate America job. But it's okay because I figured I could work in

corporate America while pursuing my acting career and I wouldn't have to be a

starving artist. So year one rose by I'm working in corporate America not

...