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

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

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

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

Episode 16: Paperbacks and Prom

Tenth grade is, in every sense, a crossroads. Some of us chase new interests, some of us take on responsibilities we never wanted, and some of us learn, with shock and sorrow, that life isn’t as certain as we once believed.

My own tenth‑grade year held all of that: a loss that reshaped the ground beneath us, a night I had dared to dream about, and squeaky creepers we could hear but never quite see.

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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

Episode 15: Our Crime Syndicate Induction

The day we felt like we were officially part of the whole came before sunrise, in strange places, stumbling through a dance we didn't know the steps to. It was mortifying. It was embarrassing. And maybe it didn't carry the profound meaning we thought it did, but it became part of our history.

Part of our lore.

Part of who we were becoming.

And we wouldn't have missed it for anything.

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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

Episode 14: Two-a-Days and Polka

The first few months of tenth grade are nothing short of a growth spurt.

New experiences, new classes, and new people, all nudging us toward adulthood. Ready or not.

Sometimes we get in over our heads. Sometimes we fall on our faces and laugh it off. Sometimes we grit our teeth and level up. And sometimes we're carried along on a cloud we never saw coming.

And when that cloud is a person we admire, we go willingly. Even if it means learning to polka.

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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

Episode 13; Two Trips and a Cryptic Message

The foibles, triumphs, and small humiliations of eighth and ninth grade were exactly the seasoning I needed before stepping into the wider world of high school. Those two years gave me more than I understood at the time.

Two unforgettable school trips stitched together the kind of friendships that mattered then, even if some of them have faded with time. And a single indecipherable yearbook note, mysterious then and still mysterious now, remains the one I remember above all the rest.

These were years of growth, laughter, and character building, carrying me toward the person I was becoming.

And even though I might have forgotten, I remember it all now.

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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

Episode 12: Mysteries of Secretaries and Rock

Thirteen is a crossroads: that strange age when we want to be held and protected, yet ache to be older than we are. The fall and winter of 1979 became exactly that for me. It was a hinge year where innocence, bravado, and bewilderment collided.

This was the season when a school secretary quietly kept me safe. When a rock concert swallowed me whole. When I learned that daydreaming about something and being ready for it are rarely the same thing.

Sometimes, good people step in at the exact moment we need them.

Sometimes, we have to navigate the turbulence on our own.

And sometimes, the thing we think will make us feel grown up is a reminder of just how young we still are.

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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

Episode 11: Firelight and Firsts

Thirteen was a time lit from within. New experiences, unexpected delights, and the first quiet hints that we might be more than the generic selves we thought we were. A single moment can loosen a certainty long held; a spark of perception can rewrite the stories we believe about ourselves.

It is a rare discovery to see our reflections the way someone else sees us.

We were braver than we knew, and we were always more than the shadows we tried to hide in.

Even without firelight.

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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