S E13: Lost Time, Found Compassion: Healing My Teenage Self - Stories from a Stranger | Lyssna här

Hunter talks to three strangers who had moments in their youth that changed the shape of their lives going forwards. Even though they’re adults now, they still feel their young selves inside.

Meet this weeks strangers:

- Mia shares how being called “weird” and told she couldn’t sing deeply hurt her as a child, especially as a quirky, ADHD kid who once went to school dressed as a clown. She describes a traumatic recess incident where popular kids staged a fake breakup to humiliate her, chasing her and throwing papers, which shattered her sense of safety but later fueled her compassion and artistic philosophy of creating non‑judgmental, welcoming spaces. She talks about processing these memories through EMDR therapy, learning that childhood experiences lodge in the body and that working through them can be painful but ultimately liberating. Mia reflects on how bullying made her abandon her authentic, “weird” self to fit in as a teen, leading to a sense of “lost time” and a long journey back to self‑trust and self‑expression.

- Jon recalls being a disruptive class clown in ninth grade and having a teacher physically slam him against a wall and call him a “loser” who would “never amount to be anything,” a moment whose full hurt surfaced only later. Johnny also describes a long, hostile relationship with a principal from junior high through high school, and how decades later that principal followed him on Facebook, praised his art, and moved Johnny to tears, feeling freed from the old “prison‑like” school dynamic. Asked about his greatest love, Johnny says it is the creative process itself, which sustains him spiritually and emotionally, serves as meditation and escape, and has been more enduring than his past marriage or romantic relationships. Reflecting on those educators, Johnny says he would now apologize to the teacher he tormented, acknowledging he disrupted what might have been the teacher’s passion and that the teacher had reason to try to stop the source of his pain.

- Amit still thinks often about her fourth‑grade English teacher who taught her after she immigrated from Israel to the United States in 2008 without knowing English. Thrown into public school with almost no English beyond “yes” and “no,” she initially communicated with peers through sounds, he took her under his wing, teaching her one‑on‑one during and after school, and even weekly at the library over the summer, so that by fifth grade she could speak English fluently, if imperfectly. Amit describes how his care made her feel loved and seen, stabilizing an otherwise frightening and destabilizing childhood immigration experience where she initially felt unsafe and unable to express herself. Now a teacher and tutor herself, Amit hasn’t yet reconnected with her former teacher, but wants to tell him she’s doing the same work he did—teaching kids to read, write, and speak English—and that she thinks of him almost every time she teaches.

Chapters:

00:00:00 Why our teenage years still shape us

00:04:17 Mia shares a devastating high school prank

00:08:12 Reclaiming lost time and your true identity

00:12:14 Learning to hold compassion for the bully

00:14:54 Why every stranger has a story to tell

00:17:13 Jon and overcoming the loser label

00:21:00 Finding closure with a past principal on social media

00:24:44 The creative process as a spiritual bride

00:28:42 Turning the right pain into artistic success

00:32:42 Amit and finding a voice after immigrating

00:37:45 The teacher who became her greatest cheerleader