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Speaker 1: Hey, thanks for being a part of the conversation. This

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is Forest Stories. I'm the Poet in the Forest, a

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children's series that I pinned out in the nineteen nineties. Now,

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none of it would be possible if it wasn't for

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this forest right here in South Charlotte, North Carolina. I

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talk about it so much that I thought, maybe it's

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time that you get to know what has inspired me

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for thirty years. Thanks for being a part of the conversation.

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Welcome back to the forest. Well it's arrived.

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Speaker 2: The sign a beautiful sign that says Heartbreak Hill, established

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nineteen eighty eight. I've spent so much time writing about

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and talking about Heartbreak Hill that I felt that maybe

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it's time for newbies and people who've lived inside this

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force all these years to know that this is heartbreak Hill.

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Not as in someone's heart has been broken. It's just

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that this hill is so amazingly steep that it just

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breaks your heart. When you get to the top, you're

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just gasping for air and you're just sitting there going

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I did it. Oh my god, that's my victory for

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the day. I climbed up Heartbreak Hill and made it.

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But the sign it arrived, and I'll probably wait a

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couple of days before I put it up because I

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want to have good, good, good tools and screws and

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things like that to keep it in place. Because with

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a sign like this, and I'm not this is not

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conceded a sign like this, people will probably take it.

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And I have to prepare my heart for something like that,

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because Heartbreak Hill is just that place where skateboarders go, walkers,

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bike riders, people who want to accept a daily challenge,

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they go up the hill. And the only time you

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don't ever want to go up that hill is when

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there is snow and ice. You're not gonna get up

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that hill. You better figure out where you're going to

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park that car, and you better put it in a

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place where it's not going to get smashed into. Because

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we're living in a forest. That's what it's all about.

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It's about accepting all things nature. But sometimes you got

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to take the chance and name the things and create

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a mile marker so that future generations can say, where

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are you going? I thought I'd take a walk up

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Heartbreak Hill. Where's that name come from? I don't know,

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I don't know. There's a sign on the road. They

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call it Heartbreak Hill. I know nothing about this area,

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but that's the reason why I created this podcast, is

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to help share the story of this forest that has

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been in my life since nineteen ninety two, and it

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really is a place of unbelievable positive energy. The sign

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it's arrived, I cannot wait to share the name of

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this hill with the rest of the world. Heartbreak Hill,

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thanks for being a part of the conversation.