The Moth makes it into the pages of Newsweek, and I play a teeny tiny role.

I began telling stories for The Moth back in 2011.

It's no exaggeration that my life changed on that July night when I took the stage at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and told my first story.

The Moth recently aired that first story on the Moth Radio Hour.  It's a good story, but four years later, I hear the imperfections when I listen to it. I may have won the StorySLAM that night, but I still had a lot to learn.

I still have a lot to learn.

I recently revised and retold the story for a special Moth event at the Soho Synagogue.  was much happier with that performance, though based upon the post I wrote after winning that first slam, I was damn happy that night, too. 

This week I was mentioned in a Newsweek feature on The Moth. It's a thrill to be mentioned and quoted in Newsweek, and it's even more thrilling to see Speak Up, our storytelling organization, mentioned as well.

You can find my mention and quote about two-thirds of the way down the piece.

But most thrilling is simply seeing my name so closely attached to The Moth. 

Four years ago, I was still dreaming of taking the stage and telling a story for The Moth. I was a guy with a goal who was still too frightened to take that first step.

34 StorySLAMs, 13 GrandSLAMs, and a handful of Mainstage shows later, I am now a Moth storyteller. 

It's no exaggeration that my life changed on that July night when I took the stage at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and told my first story.