It's  easy for us to say "follow your passion!" or "march to the beat of your own drum," but following through on your passions is much harder. How do we persevere when everyone in our lives is telling us it would be  wiser to give up, more traditional, or dream a little smaller? Raheem Jarbo (also known by his rap persona Mega Ran) was a middle school teacher leading a double life as a hip-hop artist for years. In 2011, he left his teaching career behind to pursue his passion for music full time. However, his unconventional musical styling of nerdcore hip-hop made an already difficult artistic pursuit even more challenging.

Subscribe to "The Stories We Tell" on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.