“When you have a successful thru-hike on the A.T., it’s like a jewel inside of you, and whatever you do afterwards, no matter how bad things get, you’ve always got that jewel that you can take out,” Mark Di Miceli said. “Maybe it’s just a shelter you spent one night at out of the rain, and you were happy that you were dry, or maybe it’s just a turn in the trail, and you don’t even remember where it was. Maybe it was some time you were sitting under a tree having some cold water. But that’s your jewel, that’s the oasis in your head that you can always pull out when times get tough. It’s a
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