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Hi, I'm Jordan, and I'm a
senior here at Mount Holyoke.

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"Do you want fries with that?"

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That was the first question
my brother asked me

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when I told him that I was
declaring my English major.

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He repeated that
question to me later when

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I told him I was declaring
a Classics minor.

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And he's a very protective
and supportive older brother,

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and I really appreciate
that from him,

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and I knew that what
he was trying to get at

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was the question of what was
I going to do with my major.

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Or perhaps what was my
major going to do for me.

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Now, when he asked me that
when I was a freshman,

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I didn't have an answer.

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Didn't really have an answer
as a sophomore, either.

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And it's only now that
I'm really starting

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to answer that question.

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So, how I first got at that was
thinking of what skills I had,

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or I was learning
as an English major

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that I could transfer to
another career, how I could

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monetize that and make money.

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Because that's what
matters, right?

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And so I started to think
of my writing skills,

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and I write a lot of
essays for English,

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and I have what I like to
call strong writing skills,

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and with that, communication
and argumentation.

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And in the short term,
I took that and I

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got a job at the Speaking,
Arguing, and Writing Center

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here on campus, and I've
been working as a SAW mentor

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since my sophomore year.

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And that's been
wonderful, and I've

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continued to improve
on those skills

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and learn a lot from those
connections that I've made.

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But still, I didn't really
know what to do with them.

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I didn't have an
answer of how I was

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going to apply that elsewhere.

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And I kind of came up with that
answer in a really odd way.

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So, side note, I have
a passion for horses.

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I've been riding since
I was four years old

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and taking lessons
in the summer.

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I was on multiple riding
teams here on campus.

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They've always been a
great, wonderful part

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of my life, something
that I've always enjoyed.

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I go to the barn to de-stress.

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It's been a wonderful,
wonderful portion of my life.

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And last summer,
summer before last,

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I discovered an internship
at the American Quarter Horse

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Association in Amarillo, Texas.

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And the American Quarter
Horse Association

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is a breed registry and
membership organization.

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They run huge
shows, and they also

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register all the
horses of that breed.

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I was their online
communications and publications

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intern, and there I
learned about social media,

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social media marketing.

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I did blogging and also
some more traditional forms

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of journalism.

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I found that field that
I was interested in.

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I was working on their on
Facebook page for their youth

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association, their Instagram.

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I was in charge of
the America's Horse

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daily blog for about four
months, and it was amazing.

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And I started to
ask the question

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of what technology
does for communication,

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and how our advances today
have changed how we communicate

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and what ideas we can get
across, how fast, when, how,

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why.

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And so I was excited, because
I found what I wanted to do.

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And so junior year comes
around, and in the spring

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I'm trying to figure
out what internship I'm

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going to get that's
going to top that,

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because I thought that was
the best experience out there.

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And I came up with three goals.

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I one, wanted to
complete my degree

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in December of this year.

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I wanted to create my
own media marketing

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firm after I completed
my degree in the spring,

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and I wanted to apply that
firm in the equine industry.

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I wanted to stay, keep
my two passions combined.

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And to do that, I
approached my horse trainer,

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she's a local horse trainer,
and I've worked with her before,

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been riding with her
for a couple of years,

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and I asked if she
wanted a summer intern.

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And she said yes,
and so my job was

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to ride with her during the day.

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I would help her in the barn
and get to ride and improve

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my riding skills, but then
I was to build her a website

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and improve her social media.

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And it was a great
change from what

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I had done the summer
before, because this was

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more independent and on my own.

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And so my summer
experience was amazing.

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It was everything I
expected it to be.

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I worked at the barn every day,
Saturday, even Sunday included.

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I was at horse shows.

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I groomed, tacked, rode horses.

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I cleaned the barn,
I organized the barn,

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I spent hours scrubbing
down the aisles,

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and I loved every second of it.

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And I also worked
at night on my own

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on the website, the
social media accounts,

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doing those things when I
was very tired from being

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at the barn all day.

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But again, it was something
that I really, really enjoyed.

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It was incredibly rewarding.

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I saw huge improvements in my
writing within the first week.

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It's amazing what doing
something every day can mean.

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And I, as I said, I
enjoyed what I was doing.

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I liked being able to see
the end of the summer,

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that I had a finished project.

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I can go back and look and
say, this is what I've done.

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And to really see
the accumulation

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of an entire summer's
worth of work.

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But still something was missing.

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And it kind of took me a while
to pin down what was missing,

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and I realized a lot of
that is while I enjoyed

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working independently,
I didn't really

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enjoy working entirely on
my own in a room by myself.

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The work I was doing
wasn't immediately

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beneficial to anyone else.

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The website didn't go live
until the end of the summer.

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It was helping no
one, in my opinion.

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And the work wasn't as
meaningful as some of the work

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that I'm used to doing,
particularly in the SAW Center,

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and working one-on-one
with students

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to improve their writing.

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And in that same way, the work
kind of felt like busy work.

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Or not as intellectually
challenging

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as some of my academic
course that I've really

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come to enjoy and love.

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But I still don't
have any regrets.

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It was a great summer.

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But I know now that I need
something different out

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of an experience.

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I need something different for
what I want to do with my life.

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I want to keep
horses in my life,

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but they need to stay a hobby.

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By the end of the
summer, I was starting

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to dread going to the barn,
and that's not something

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that I wanted to deal with.

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The reason that I love horses
is because they are a hobby,

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and because they are a
stress free passion for me.

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And it was a really great
experience to know that.

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I also learned that, while I
liked these questions of what

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technology does for
communication, what

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we can do with
social media, it's

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not really where I want to be.

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And again, that gets
back to those questions

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of working mostly on my own and
not that personal connection.

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So my plans has certainly
changed since last spring

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and this summer.

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I had three goals
going into this summer,

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and only one of them
is still viable.

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I submitted my application
for graduation like last week,

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and it was terrifying
to put that I

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am going to be completing
my degree in December,

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which is like not long enough.

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But it's really,
really exciting,

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and I'm really glad
that I met that goal.

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And instead, now
I'm looking to apply

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to grad schools in Europe,
mostly in the UK or Ireland.

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I want to get my MA in English.

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I love the work that I do here
on campus in my literature

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courses, and it's something
that I want to continue.

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And then, after that I hope
to come back to the states,

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perhaps with my PhD, and be
able to inspire students the way

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that professions
here inspired me.

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Or I could work in
a writing center,

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because that's work that
I also really enjoy.

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Working one-on-one, creating
those personal connections,

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and really seeing my
work mean something.

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So I know that whatever
I end up doing,

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it's going to have
those personal passions

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and be in an environment
that's intellectually

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challenging and inspiring.

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So my final words.

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I tailor-made an
internship for myself,

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and while it didn't quite
turn out the way I expected,

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it did meet all of
my expectations,

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and in rather surprising ways.

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I learned more
about myself than I

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ever though I was
going to learn,

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and learned a lot less about
social media or even horses.

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And so with that, I have
a couple pieces of advice.

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Let your internship
or your experience,

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whatever it might
be, surprise you.

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Don't control it so much.

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And be open to change.

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There's always
another way to go.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]