This is the Moth Radio Hour.

And in this episode, stories about finding the light at the end of the tunnel, bright futures

in dark times, and hope even when things seem hopeless.

Our first storyteller is Katya Duff. Katya told this story at one of our open mic story slam

competitions in Los Angeles, where we partner with public radio station KCRW.

Here's Katya, live at the mall.

When I was 14 years old, my parents decided it was a great idea to get me out of school

and moved a million thousand miles away from the far east of Russia close to

Moscow so I could go to a great college several years later. I didn't want any of this. I liked

my school. I liked my ski and I liked my rock climbing, my friends. So when they just moved me to

Moscow, I got very depressed. In addition to everything,

once we moved, we had a little bit of savings, but they suddenly all disappeared because of a financial

crisis. So when I came to my new school, not only we were poor, but also I had no friends.

I mean, it's all my fault. I was very grumpy about moving

and I didn't want any friends. But the first year in the new school was extremely miserable.

So for my 15th birthday, my dad told me, I know what you'd like as a birthday present. Let's

go camping with a bunch of other adults and kids. And this way you can climb

the tallest mountain in Europe. You know, most girls for 15 years old, at 15, they won't

probably a dress or a pair of shoes. For me, it was an amazing idea. Yes, I really want to climb

the tallest mountain in Europe. So we go on this trip, which was not very well planned, honestly, because it was 10 parents

and about 15 kids, and we didn't bring enough food for all of us.

And it was non-stop camping for a month. We lived in intense bathing in rivers. And for the last two weeks of

...