This is the Moth Radio Hour.

I'm your host, Jody Powell.

There's a line from a Robert Burns poem that says,

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.

In this hour, we're hearing all about the ways we learn to accept what is laid out in front of us,

despite our best efforts.

For me, one of my biggest moments is leaving sunny Jamaica

and finding myself on my first day of college in the Adirondack Mountains during a blizzard.

I had no idea what I was getting into.

And when I got off the Greyhound bus, my well-meaning mother said, look, this is where you are.

It was sand for a long time. Now embrace snow.

The snow was almost up to my knees and I was wearing sneakers.

In this hour, stories of acceptance.

Of sticking it out and looking maybe really hard for the bright side.

And yes, being okay even when you find yourself up to your knees in snow

wearing sneakers. Her first story comes from Rob Carr, who by the way still lives in the

snow Yadirondacks. Rob told this at a Burlington Grand Slam where we partner with Vermont Public

Radio. Here's Rob, live at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts.

So it was a few days before my first semester of my junior year in college and about an hour before the final deadline when I declared my major in theater with an emphasis in performance.

And I realized that isn't very noteworthy, but at the time, I'd never taken one theater class at the college.

I had never participated in one play at the college.

In fact, I'd never even seen a play at the college.

...