From PRX, this is the Moth Radio Hour, I'm Jennifer Hickson from the Moth. The Moth is true stories told live.

We often go to great lengths to find a specific story, but other times the stories find us,

either through our pitchline, more about that later, or through the Moth Story Slams, our open mic competitions.

All of the stories you'll hear this hour come from people we first met at a Moth Story Slam somewhere in America,

and the stories are as varied as the people who show up to tell them. For instance, this one about a college sophomore who's forced to keep his mouth shut, literally.

We first met Dan Sousa at the Boston Story Slam, where we partner with PRX and Public Radio Station WBUR. This is his Grand Slam Winning Story. Here's Dan Sousa.

So this summer after my sophomore year of college, I got braces and a job at the cemetery.

And that's not even the bad part. I also got my job broken on purpose.

So they called it preventative surgery, which at the time sounded kind of logical and like the right thing to do.

In retrospect, they should have called it, we're going to ruin your summer.

So my job had been growing out of alignment for a couple of years, and it was a pretty painful process. And that's what had brought me to my oral surgeon.

I'll never forget the way he described my situation. He said, Dan, if you don't get this surgery right now, but the time you're 40, you'll have the mouth of an 80 year old.

And the reason I'll never forget it is, I remember thinking, like, what the fuck does that mean?

I don't know what an 80 year old's mouth looks like. I don't want to know. And I don't even know what a 40 year old mouth looks like.

I'm 19 years old, and I'm like, screw this. I'm not getting a surgery.

So three weeks later, I go in to get the surgery. And I walk into the hospital, kind of a proud, confident college guy, ready for a good summer of cemetery work.

And I wake up, unknown hours later.

A swollen, bruised monster who talks like this, who still works at the cemetery.

So they'd wired my jaw shut, and you would need to stay that way for the next month and a half.

It didn't take me long to put together a list of the things that you need an open mouth for.

I'll go over a couple of the highlights. Sneezing. Yawning. Caughting. Open mouth kissing.

Brushing the inside of your mouth, which, to be fair, makes that open mouth kissing thing completely moot.

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