Hello London. The Moth is returning to Union Chapel on Thursday, September 28th for a night of vibrant true stories.

The main stage is the quintessential Moth experience, a two-act show featuring a musical act, where the storytellers and a notable host share true personal tales without notes.

Experience a night of unforgettable Moth tales as they're recorded for future episodes of the Moth podcast and radio hour.

Door is open at seven, and door is beginning at eight. Get your tickets now at the Moth.org Bowerslash, London.

This is the Moth radio hour from PRX, and I'm Katherine Burns. We sometimes can go weeks and even months, just keeping on, keeping on.

Without much drama or stress, but in a situation we'll arise when we need to make big decisions on the spot.

Those moments of pressure and how we respond say a lot about who we are as people. So this week, stories about being in the hot seat.

Our first storytellers spoke with a live performance at Benavoria Hall in Seattle, where we partner with Seattle Arts and Lectures.

Here's Will Macon, live at the Moth.

June, 1986. I just graduated high school. I was working in a parking lot on the Jersey Shore.

And by working, I mean I was playing stick ball with my friends, surfing, when the waves were good. Parking a car every now and then.

And I was happy to do that for the rest of my life.

Then one night I went to the movies, and I saw a top gun starring Tom Cruise as Maverick, the renegade fighter pilot.

And that changed everything. From that moment on, I wanted to fly jets. And not only that, I wanted to be Maverick.

So I joined ROTC, graduated college, went to US Navy Flake School in Pensacola, Florida.

And there, I classed up with a group of 30 young men and women all of whom had seen top gun.

All of whom wanted to be Maverick. But only the top three of our graduating class would fly jets.

Everyone else would fly a rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong.

The 30 of us emerged from ground school ranked more or less the same.

Flight phase of training was next. And here was where we'd separate the best from the best, the cream from the cream, the puppies from the small dogs.

And it was critically important during this phase, which instructor was assigned to you, because your instructor graded your flights and your grades, determined your class rank.

So on the spectrum of instructors, a lieutenant, I'll call happy, was by far the coolest.

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