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Hi.

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My name is Abigail Carroll.

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And this summer, I was
an acting apprentice

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with the Shakespeare Theatre
of New Jersey in Madison.

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So when I was looking
for summer internship,

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I knew that I wanted to
find something close to home

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with a well-respected theater
company that also provided me

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the opportunity to act.

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But the thing is, acting
internships aren't really

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a thing.

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And I was already looking
for something super specific,

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so I knew I was going to
have a hard time finding

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something that appealed to me.

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Luckily for me,
though, I grew up

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one town over from the
Shakespeare Theatre

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of New Jersey and
have been through

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their educational program
during the summers when

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I was in high school.

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One of 25 professional
theaters in the state

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and one of the
leading Shakespeare

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theaters in the country,
it's New Jersey's

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only professional
theater company

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dedicated to Shakespeare's
canon and other classic works.

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The Apprentice Company is a
part of the Summer Professional

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Training Program,
which offers training

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in all theatrical disciplines
for early-career theater

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artists.

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At the beginning of the
program, we were split up

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into two groups
of 14, and we had

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daily classes in acting, voice,
stage combat, and viewpoints.

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We also had the opportunity
to work in the scene, costume,

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and prop shop for
our crew calls, which

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involved helping build
sets, costumes, and props

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for the main stage
shows that were going on

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while we were there.

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Over the course of 10
weeks, we put together

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four different projects,
which we presented in what

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we call the Late Night Series.

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We worked project for a span
of about three weeks or so,

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and then presented them at
night after the main stage

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shows were over.

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Our first late night performance
was our epic scene night

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for which group performed
a roughly 20 minute cut

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of an epic piece.

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My group did a retelling
of the Fall of Troy, which

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was a beautiful and
emotional piece with excerpts

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from Euripides,
the Trojan women,

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well as original text
written by our director.

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Our next scene night
was put together

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by the directing intern,
which was a group of four who

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handpicked a handful of
scenes ranging from classics

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to contemporary plays.

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The night lasted
about 40 minutes,

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with each scene running about
two to three minutes each.

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I was in this scene
from the play Old Times

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by Harold Pinter, which is
about a married couple, Kate

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and Deeley, and Kate's
old friend, Anna,

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who's come to visit,
which inspires

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a fairly absurd and enthralling
play, personally in my opinion,

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I think.

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Our next scene night was
our Shakespeare scene night,

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for which our acting professor
directed us in various scenes

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from plays such as
Twelfth Night, Henry V,

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and As You Like It.

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Similar to the
director scene night,

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we performed scenes
back to back,

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but we got to flesh
these scenes out

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even further because
we had fewer scenes

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to get through and more
time to work on them.

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I was in the scene from
the history Henry V, which

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closes one of
Shakespeare's tetralogies

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with the invasion
and defeat of France

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by Henry V. Our last performance
was the final project, which

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is an hour long cut of a
lesser-known Shakespeare play.

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In previous years, they had done
plays such as The Winter's Tale

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[INAUDIBLE].

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But this year, we went even
further down the rabbit hole

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and did a play called
The Two Noble Kinsmen,

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one that [INAUDIBLE]
has never done

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before, and with good reason.

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[LAUGHTER]

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It's the retelling of the story
from Geoffrey Chaucer's The

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Canterbury Tales.

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And it follows, as
you could probably

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guess, two noble kinsmen who
are taken prisoner after a war,

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and then fall in love
with the same woman.

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To be honest, it's not
a well-written play

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in the slightest.

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And it was a really stressful
process putting together

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an hour long show with
two weeks of rehearsal.

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But it ended up
being a lot of fun.

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And what was great
was, three days

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before our final
performance, our director

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decided to turn it into
sort of pseudo-musical.

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[LAUGHTER]

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So that was really fun
trying to work around.

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Going into this program, I knew
I was going to learn a lot.

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I expected to learn a
lot, but I didn't really

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know what was going to be.

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For example, I picked up
a lot of practical skills

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such as basic sewing
and painting techniques,

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how to work with
dry ice and flash

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paper, basic
backstage skills that

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can help me find
theater employment when

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I can't find acting work.

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I also learned a lot about
acting and technique.

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I learned better methods
of approaching Shakespeare

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and other classical texts.

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Now, I'm someone who
wants to just dive

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right in and how something
performance-ready right

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off the bat, but that's
just not possible

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and it makes the process a
lot harder than it has to be.

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So probably one of the most
important technical things

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I learned this summer was
how to slow down and take

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my time with texts.

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One of my acting
professors gave us

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these six steps
for taking our time

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working with classical texts.

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And moving forward,
these are things

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that I can use to take my time
and really settle into my work.

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In my stage combat
class, we learned

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some basic hand-to-hand
combat as well

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as how to use single swords,
which I learned is not

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the same thing as fencing.

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You're not actually
supposed to hit the person.

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[LAUGHTER]

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So I had to really
fight with myself

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to get out of that mindset and
really focus on stage combat

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from the acting perspective.

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Now, viewpoints is
really weird to explain

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because it's not something you
get, really, until you do it.

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You work with things
like architecture

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of the space and [INAUDIBLE]
response, repetition, tempo,

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duration-- things that you don't
consider when you're acting.

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But I actually found them
all to be really beneficial

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because this class
really encouraged

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me to kind of let myself go,
and let go of insecurities,

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and to stop worrying about
what other people think of me.

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It took a lot of
time to get there.

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It wasn't until
about week six of 10

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that it kind of fell
into place for me.

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Because I've always had
a really difficult time

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just letting myself go,
and being confident,

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and making big and bold
choices, especially

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in front of a large group.

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But this class kind
of helped me get

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to place where I felt
comfortable doing so.

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And that's something I
can hold onto and work on

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while I'm still here at school
moving forward in my career.

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I also ended up learning a
lot about myself as a person.

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For example, I now know
that something I really

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need to work on,
especially if I want

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to make a career out of acting,
is putting myself out there.

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I'm 100% an introvert,
and that's not something

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I really can or want to change.

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But I need to work on
being better socially

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and being more open, as opposed
to staying in and doing things

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that don't necessarily involve
interacting with other people.

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Because in this career,
it doesn't necessarily

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always matter how good
you are in the room

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and what your work is
like if you're not someone

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that other people
want to work with.

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And I think probably one of
the most important things I've

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learned that's super easy
for everyone to forget

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is that I'm not the only
one who's terrified to fail.

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I'm not the only one who thinks
that everyone else is better

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than me and, oh my god,
how am I going to get

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a job when I'm just terrible?

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Most actors, especially
early-career actors,

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feel exactly the same way.

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And it's easy to forget that
I'm not the only one who's

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in that boat, and everyone else
is just as terrified as I am.

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And in a weird way, it's kind of
really comforting to know that,

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and that we're all just
terrified together.

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Art Garfunkel said
that everything worth

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doing starts with being scared.

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And I think that goes for just
about anything anyone could

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want to do.

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I've been lucky enough
to have found something

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that I love with all my heart
and that scares the crap

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out of me every single day.

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But that's not something that
I would change for the world.

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And so something I
encourage all of you to do

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is find something that
you're passionate about,

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something that really
involved that also scares you.

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Because it can be
hard to be challenging

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yourself constantly
over and over again

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and to really break out
of your comfort zone.

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But if you find
something that encourages

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you to do that, it just
might be one of the most

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rewarding things you do.

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And that's not something
that you want to miss out on.

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[APPLAUSE]

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