Hi listeners, this is Ashley Flowers, and I have a story I want to tell you.

So come, take a walk with me through the woods, and listen very close.

The silence is almost deafening out here.

I mean, I could hear a pin drop if I had a pin, but I don't.

There's nothing sharp for miles around, believe me.

I've made a hundred percent sure of it.

All I have on me are the clothes on my back, and my backpack, which is actually kind of

cutting into my shoulders.

It isn't hot out here, at least not yet.

I purposefully started this hike really early in the morning so that I don't think the heat's

going to get to me, and hopefully by the time it breaks through the trees, I'll be deep

enough into the forest where all of the tallest pines grow, and I'll be protected by their

shade.

But that's a ways away, and I just got to keep walking until then.

This isn't by accident, you know, I designed it this way to be so completely isolated.

I needed to be alone, needed to get away from literally everything.

I needed time to think.

I know isolation isn't a big deal to some people, but I can basically count on my hand

the number of times I've ever been alone, ever.

I'm one of five in my family, and my whole childhood, my whole life has been nothing but

non-stop chatter from everyone around me, and being the middle child never helped.

With all the chatter going on from other people, I'm not sure how much anyone ever really

...