I Must Have Forgotten

Season 2, Episode 3; New Shoe, First Steps

Sometimes, when we think we see where the universe is leading us, we realize we've been looking at the wrong map. As I headed off to Ohio State for my first year in the Stadium Scholarship Dorm, I was the beneficiary of a change I hadn't known was coming.

And once I realized how well that change fit me, nothing could have been better in the long run. Because where I landed was with a new friend who saw magic in the same place I did.

Someone who understood how special it was to be part of where we were, and who was ready to plunge into the nuances and the legends. And the truths.

And that was perfect.

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When the world asks who you are, how do you answer?

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Explore Beth’s creative archive, including I Must Have Forgotten and True Crime BnB, at linktr.ee/bethpods

Season 2, Episode 2: Myths of Football and Concrete

Summer of 1984 had already resulted in a change of mindset, but it was also accelerating me toward a change of venue.

The mountain of paperwork and baby steps between the past and the future was always on my mind, but my dorm assignment lit a fire of excitement and mystery that I couldn't ignore.

And once I began to really understand what it really meant, wild horses couldn't have kept me away.

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When the world asks who you are, how do you answer?

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Explore Beth’s creative archive, including I Must Have Forgotten and True Crime BnB, at linktr.ee/bethpods

Season Two opens with the moment everything starts to shift.

Everything I had spent Act 1 of my life learning suddenly felt obsolete. I was in that strange place where everything I knew was in the rear-view mirror, and a whole new future was opening up in front of me in Act 2.

There were long walks to fill out job applications, a new position, and a moment where I faced a choice....and didn't choose well.

This is the episode that begins everything that came after childhood's routines were left behind. The small moments still matter. These are snapshots of who I was becoming.

Welcome back. Let’s begin. For the full experience, start with Season 1 and listen in order.

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When the world asks who you are, how do you answer?

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Explore Beth’s creative archive, including I Must Have Forgotten and True Crime BnB, at linktr.ee/bethpods

Season 2 arrives at the end of August, carrying a new question:

When the world asks who you are, how do you answer?

For the full experience, begin with Season 1 and listen in order.

Episode 22; Season 1 Finale: A Quilt, a Journal, and Intermission

This season has been a look back at the first act of a life, stitched together from small moments and quiet turning points: laughter that lifted me and losses that transformed me, all leading to the ritual ending of graduation night.

That night marked the curtain call for everything I’d ever known… and the beginning of the pause before everything became new again.

Season 2 arrives at the end of August.

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If you've ever wondered whether the small moments of your life matter — they do. Right now is one of them.

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Explore Beth’s creative archive, including I Must Have Forgotten and True Crime BnB, at linktr.ee/bethpods

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Keywords: memoir podcast, narrative storytelling, growing up in the Midwest, Indiana childhood, Northeast Ohio, Parma, mother-daughter relationships, siblings, healing and growth, identity, personal essays, emotional storytelling, sound design, love, heartache, laughter

Episode 21: Muddy Night, Borrowed Dress

The last year of high school is a transition in every sense of the word. We spend that time collecting memories, preparing for whatever comes next, and learning how to be who we are without the people we've grown to depend on.

Part of that transition came through two nights: one hilarious and slightly dangerous, and the other uncomfortable in ways that had me grimacing through it. But both moments taught me something about who I was becoming, and nudged me toward a future I could no longer pretend wasn't coming.

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If you've ever wondered whether the small moments of your life matter — they do. Right now is one of them.

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Explore Beth’s creative archive, including I Must Have Forgotten and True Crime BnB, at linktr.ee/bethpods

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Keywords: memoir podcast, narrative storytelling, growing up in the Midwest, Indiana childhood, Northeast Ohio, Parma, mother-daughter relationships, siblings, healing and growth, identity, personal essays, emotional storytelling, sound design, love, heartache, laughter

Episode 20: Two Scars, Inches Apart

As we make our way along life’s pathways, our footsteps change with us. Sometimes they're quick and sure, sometimes slow and careful. But every now and then, a misstep of our own puts someone else in harm’s way.

And when we realize that our mistake caused an injury, we have to reassess our journey and grow in a different direction: to move with more awareness, to tread more gently, and to recognize the quiet, human frailty in the people around us.

Even when it looks different from the kind of frailty we already recognize.

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If you've ever wondered whether the small moments of your life matter — they do. Right now is one of them.

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Explore Beth’s creative archive, including I Must Have Forgotten and True Crime BnB, at linktr.ee/bethpods

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Keywords: memoir podcast, narrative storytelling, growing up in the Midwest, Indiana childhood, Northeast Ohio, Parma, mother-daughter relationships, siblings, healing and growth, identity, personal essays, emotional storytelling, sound design, love, heartache, laughter

Episode 19: Hayrides and the Blizzard at Dawn

Being in a vulnerable place can draw all kinds of people toward you: the helpers, the opportunists, and the ones who simply recognize the ache you're carrying. Junior year put me in a position to relearn a lesson I already knew, even if I'd rather not have had to.

In the middle of it all, I collected a handful of moments, some funny, some empowering, that have stayed with me ever since.

And it gifted me with mental images I'll hold forever.

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If you've ever wondered whether the small moments of your life matter — they do. Right now is one of them.

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Explore Beth’s creative archive, including I Must Have Forgotten and True Crime BnB, at linktr.ee/bethpods

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Keywords: memoir podcast, narrative storytelling, growing up in the Midwest, Indiana childhood, Northeast Ohio, Parma, mother-daughter relationships, siblings, healing and growth, identity, personal essays, emotional storytelling, sound design, love, heartache, laughter

There are seasons when the things we choose, the new commitments, the challenges, the hustle and bustle, are really just ways of protecting delicate parts of ourselves we’re not ready to examine...to confront.

In my junior year, I leapt into something new that felt big and important, and that carried me for a while. It gave me a place to put my energy, and maybe even my heart.

But eventually, I had to stop running long enough to face what was actually true.

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If you've ever wondered whether the small moments of your life matter — they do. Right now is one of them.

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Explore Beth’s creative archive, including I Must Have Forgotten and True Crime BnB, at linktr.ee/bethpods

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Keywords: memoir podcast, narrative storytelling, growing up in the Midwest, Indiana childhood, Northeast Ohio, Parma, mother-daughter relationships, siblings, healing and growth, identity, personal essays, emotional storytelling, sound design, love, heartache, laughter

Episode 17: Mean Boys and the Bathroom Cake

Growing up means learning how to belong, when to let people in, when to hold your ground, and how to recognize, and inhabit, moments that mark a beginning... or an end.

My sixteenth birthday was the culmination of a nearly perfect year, and a milestone that showed me I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

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If you've ever wondered whether the small moments of your life matter — they do. Right now is one of them.

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Explore Beth’s creative archive, including I Must Have Forgotten and True Crime BnB, at linktr.ee/bethpods

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Keywords: memoir podcast, narrative storytelling, growing up in the Midwest, Indiana childhood, Northeast Ohio, Parma, mother-daughter relationships, siblings, healing and growth, identity, personal essays, emotional storytelling, sound design, love, heartache, laughter