Hi, I'm Meg Wallitzer.

Before we begin, a quick reminder that Selected Shorts relies on the support of listeners like you.

If this show has ever kept you company on a long walk, made sitting in traffic feel like a treat,

or given you that sudden, wonderful urge to read more, please consider making a donation.

Your support helps us bring great stories to life every week.

You can give at selected shorts.org slash support. Thank you.

The best friend, the boyfriend, the stepmother.

There's comfort in knowing the role you play in others' lives.

Also, there's fun in imagining that one day you might break out and play some entirely new role,

completely unknown to you.

I'm Meg Walletzer, and coming up on selected shorts,

fiction about the parts we were born to play and whether or not we can break out of them. Don't go anywhere.

You're listening to Selected Shorts, where our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time. You're an actor. It's true.

Even if you aren't auditioning, getting head shots, and cold-calling Adam Driver's agent,

there are many roles you play over the course of your life.

You're a father, maybe, a construction worker, a volunteer librarian, an amateur cook, and a secret

Swifty.

And these are only the roles you perform over the course of one day.

Sometimes the roles we take on don't quite suit us, so they result in uncomfortable performances.

The costume doesn't fit, the lines feel terrible coming out of our mouths, and we're always

looking for the exit. And then other times, we take on a part, and it feels entirely natural,

like we were born to play it. We can do it day in and day out, and everyone around us comes to associate us

...