This is the Moth Radio Hour from PRX, and I'm Catherine Burns. We sometimes can go weeks and even months, just keeping on, keeping on, without much drama or stress.

But then a situation will 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 Benaroya Hall in Seattle,

where we partner with Seattle Arts and Lectures.

Here's Will Macon, live at the Maw.

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 stickball 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 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 U.S. Navy Flight 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.

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