Pickles and Vodka: a Mental Health Podcast · Christina & Lauren

#227.5 Crushed by the Weight of the World feat. Vikki

·33 min·2 clips

A college professor told me I was the best natural writer she had ever encountered in 20 years of teaching.

1. Pickles and Vodka episode #227.5, "Crushed by the Weight of the World," runs about 33 minutes and fills in the blank "crushed under the weight of ___" with personal examples. 2. Co-host Lauren is joined by surprise guest co-host Vicki because Christina could not record that week, and Lauren's dog Taco keeps climbing between their laps. 3. Vicki proposed the topic, and the pair list endings like expectation, obligation, unrealized potential, disappointment, and grief before asking whether "crushed" is overdramatic. 4. On obligation, they describe college as something nobody questioned, with one co-host announcing physical therapy at senior awards, then switching from English to political science in her third year after a falling out with the English chair. 5. On unrealized potential, one co-host recalls an eighth-grade English teacher predicting a bestseller and a college professor calling her the best natural writer in about 20 years, while noting that LiveJournal readers once told her they would pay on Patreon to read her. 6. The other co-host describes attending Interlochen and learning she was "right in the middle" among superstars, which she calls a good lesson, and says her dream job is choosing music for movie and TV soundtracks. 7. On grief, one co-host says her mom and dad died less than four months apart, and that she "was not even really living" afterward; the other describes nine months without visiting her boyfriend's home because his dog is a reminder of Pico's death. 8. On being alone, one co-host says she was a "chameleon" who lied about her past at school transitions and her age on LiveJournal because "just being me was never enough." 9. They also describe how fresh starts attract them, from a new apartment without purging to a nightly skincare routine and New Year's resolutions that ended within two weeks, and one admits she avoids lying because she is "super, super bad" at it. 10. Listeners who relate to burnout, grief, or self-doubt will connect with this one.

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