This episode is about belonging.

I talk about how I almost joined the military last year and truly thought it was the path I was supposed to take. I had the scores, the physical, the job picked out, the support, the direction. On paper, it made complete sense. But when it came time to actually go, something in me just… wouldn’t move.

And after months of wondering if I had walked away from something important, I finally realized it wasn’t the military I was craving. It was community. It was people. It was a place to belong.

I had convinced myself there was nothing for me in Cincinnati. But once I stopped trying to escape and started asking myself what I could build here, everything changed.

This episode is about poetry night, grief, moving out on my own, feeling different, creating spaces for people to show up exactly as they are, and the realization that maybe community isn’t always something you find. Sometimes it’s something you create.

And if you’re in Cincinnati and want to experience the room that inspired this episode:

Poetry Night: The Listening Room

First Monday of every month

@ CobbleStone OTR

8:30pm ☕️🕯️💌