WEBVTT

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Yeah . Um I've been in civil service ,

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working with D . L . A . At DSCC

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specifically for almost 44 years now

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when I was in high school , um back in

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the seventies , everybody , all the

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girls took typing in shorthand . And in

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our typing class , our teacher wanted

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everybody to take the civil service

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typing test . So as a class , she had

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everybody take that test . And out of

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the maybe 30 people in our typing class ,

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28 of us were hired to work here in the

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typing pool . So we left high school

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and just came here . I was overwhelmed .

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I literally graduated on friday and

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started out here the following monday .

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And , you know , being kind of , you

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know , 18 years old and awkward and

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didn't know anything about government

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service . And uh , it was overwhelming

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at first , luckily there was a lot of

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people in personnel who held our hands

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and and told us what we needed to do

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and and things that , you know ,

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processes and taught us different

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things . you know , in your school ,

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you come and go to a bell . Every class

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starts with the bell and every class

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ends with a bell . And I thought when I

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graduated , I'd be done with bells .

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But even in 1977 , probably through

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their early , Maybe 81 , um , are days

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started on a bells . Days ended on a

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bell . So , you know , I thought here ,

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I was going to graduate from high

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school and get away from bells and

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there they were in the work environment .

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We have this nice new fancy building

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that's probably 20 some years old now ,

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but prior to that , they were War War

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Two , World War One buildings ,

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warehouse buildings long , um , row

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after row of just warehouse buildings ,

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one story buildings where they stored

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material , um , had offices in those

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buildings . Um , at one point point , a

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little bit of the history , There was ,

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uh , it was a prisoner of war camp was

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held here . Um , there was , uh ,

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mortuaries during times of war where

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they would bring soldiers and on trains

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because we had trained tracks that came

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through the base . The soldier , the

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trains would come up to the warehouse

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and they would offload the remains of

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the soldiers and put them in the

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warehouse until family came in , um ,

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claimed them so that it's been around

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for a long time and there's been a lot

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of different uh , job functions on the

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base . My very

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first position , I was sent to building

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41 , I sat at the end of a conveyor

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belt . And if a package came down the

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conveyor belt that didn't have a label ,

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I had to grab it and then find out

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where it was supposed to go to and type

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a label for it . I started off in the

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typing pool as um I learned different

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things and got farmed out to different

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areas . I found that I like to supply a

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lot . Um So I applied for a position in

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the supply field . Um Got picked up as

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a GS . Three supply tech . Um From

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there I went to DRM are in the

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realization area and worked as a clerk

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typist preparing the catalogs of

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merchandise that were sold at D . R . M .

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O . After that I went back to supply .

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Um Got picked up in one of the original

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intern programs for supply um and was

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hired as a GS . 79 11 . You had a cuba

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four people and then another queue

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before and another queue before

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depending on how big your organization

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was . And then you had a supervisor who

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sat at the head of the um space . Um

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The supervisor was the only one with a

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telephone with a telephone on their

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desk . So when we got a

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telephone to share amongst four people ,

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we thought we had really moved up uh on

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the food chain because we no longer had

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to go to the supervisor's desk to use a

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phone . Um There was smoking .

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Everybody who were smokers did smoke

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inside the building . And we were all

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very relieved when that was moved to

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outside smoking only because sometimes

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it wasn't very pleasant with

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everybody's different cigarette smells

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and cigar smells going around .

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Initially we were still coming out of

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the Vietnam War area . We had the gun ,

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metal gray desks and we had manual

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typewriters which eventually got

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upgraded to electric typewriters and

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then word processors , which were a

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very advantageous thing in the DRM our

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world because we did a lot of typing of

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repetitive comments and

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different things . Um we had no

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computers until the early 80s , I think

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it was . And at the time we had one

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computer per bay of the building . So

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you might have like 100 people sharing

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one computer and your team had an

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assigned time . So if you didn't , if

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nobody from your team went and use the

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computer , then you lost your time . So

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you made sure somebody was on that

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computer to take advantage of it . Um

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when everybody got their own computers ,

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it was just the basic black screen with

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white text on it . There was no images ,

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it was just uh governmental screens .

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There were educational college screens .

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It was just very basic . And I remember

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the first time there was actual image

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on the screen , it was just amazing to

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me that there was an image on the

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screen . So the technology just

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rapidly , we went from having like no

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technology to rapidly getting

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technology . So it was really changed

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the way we did our jobs When I first

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was promoted into the intern program ,

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we managed our items on these pieces ,

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these giant pieces of paper . So there

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was one paper for each item that we

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managed in our package and we would

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literally get hundreds of these every

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month . They would come in a big stack

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and at the top is your item number that

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tells you what item it is and every bit

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of information about this item . And we

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would do all of our calculations

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determine how much we needed to buy and

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where we needed to put it . Things of

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that nature . Um from there we had to

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literally fill out key punch cards

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because at the time it's how they were

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doing things . So we would fill out the

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key punch cards and then we would take

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them down and we actually keep punch

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our own cards and then take them over

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to a window and drop them off for the

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computer people to pick up and then run

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through the system . Um at one point

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there was a paper shortage or so we

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were told they decided they didn't want

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to have these big papers anymore , so

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they kind of did away with them and

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they replaced it with the basic

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paper that we're familiar with . Now

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originally payday was once a week and

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then eventually they changed it to once

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every two weeks . So payday was on

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friday and every friday the payroll

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clerk would come around walk up to

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everybody's desk and she had this

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little brown box that had everybody's

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paycheck in it . So when you knew she

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was coming around to your section , you

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always made sure you were at your desk

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so that you would be there to get your

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paycheck in your hand and not have to

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wait till monday to get it .

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It had always been my plan to retire ,

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you know , full retirement at 41 and 11

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months , And I honestly didn't even

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realize it until earlier this year that

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it was coming up on 44 years . Um But I

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enjoy what I do , I enjoy the people

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that I work with . Um I have a

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great management team that that I work

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with , and it's always been that

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way . It's , you know , from day one ,

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everybody that I've worked with has

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been awesome . Um Just

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I never really had any intentions of

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staying this long , but I never really

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wanted to be anywhere else either . If

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I was to see my typing teacher today ,

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I would thank her for all of her

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efforts in getting us to be faster and

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better typist and for making us take

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that federal Civil Service test ,

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because it set me on a path for

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employment and life experiences that I

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never would have had otherwise .