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Stuff 30 Folks In This Online Group Would Do Differently If They Had Their Current Knowledge When They Were 15 Years Old
Being a teenager naturally comes with quite a few challenges. For instance, one of the most prominent 20th-century psychologists Erik Erikson considered the teenage years to be a major stage of a person's development where one has to learn to be independent, search for a sense of self and personal identity while actively exploring their values and beliefs. In other words, a lot of things are happening all at once.
Inevitably, in the midst of these wild explorations, we're simply bound to make at least a few stupid decisions that we're gonna regret (or kind of regret) later in life. You know, once we're all grown up and much smarter than we were back then, right? I'm sure that every single one of us could come up with at least one thing we've done or didn't do back when we were teens that we'd sure be glad to change.
Recently, 31k Reddit users delved into the topic of going back in time and doing things differently after a member named u/TheIconicNZ shared a question that read "Your consciousness is sent back to when you were at age 15, and you maintain all of your current knowledge and experience. What do you do?" Bored Panda has compiled a list of some of the best answers found in this viral thread with over 77k upvotes, so here you go!
More info: Reddit
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#1
1. Good dental hygiene - floss, brush twice a day always
2. Make exercise a part of the day, it is harder to get this into routine as you get older. Plus the fitter you are when you’re younger, the more it will tide you through when older
3. Continue pursuing things that I find interesting, even if I’m not (and will never get) good at them. It is wonderful to have things to enjoy for the sake of it
4. Be nicer to my parents, especially my mum. It is a lot of responsibility, and they did their best
5. Take feedback and criticism in stride, and not let every negative thing make me question everything
Doris Bennett 4 years ago
I would have been much less physical because now my joints are killing me in my old age.
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
Whether you agree or not depends on what lifestyle/parenting you had when young/younger.
Awesome Rob 4 years ago
Don't have to be nicer to your parents if they didn't do it first while raising you.
Grumble O'Pug 4 years ago
I agree about the fitness. I had a lot of biking and slave labor horse grooming that sees me now not as rickety as people my age. (I mean knee replacements, canes, etc, sheesh)
Nevits Yibble 4 years ago
TEETH. When you get older, the health of your teeth becomes monumental.
RELATED:
#2
I never pick up a cigarette.
Steffen Rehm 4 years ago
Startet smoking with 12-13 and regret every single one 30 years later. stopped smoking 8 years ago, but my veins are trash now.
Walter Brameld 4 years ago
I never understood why anybody ever tries that first one. The link to lung cancer has been public knowledge for at least 70 years, and we've known a lot longer than that that it's fiendishly addictive. It's expensive, and it doesn't even smell good. In light of all that, what the hell is going through a person's mind when they decide to smoke for the first time, and why do so many people do it?
Jessica Cole 4 years ago
It's a good question, and for most of us the answer relates to this post's subject: young and dumb, think we're invincible, one won't hurt, trying to fit in, etc ... We don't realize when we start how physically dependent we'll become on them. My mother died at 40 from lung cancer, my grandmother (her mom) died at 60 from it. I've been smoking since age 12, I have a quit date of 7/18/21. Have the patches and gum, all I need is the drive and determination, which I'm hoping will come from looking at my kid's faces and realizing that I am it. If I died, there is no back up plan. So any ways, wish me luck! 🤞
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Gilbert Soup 4 years ago
I smoke cigarettes because there’s not much else you can do with them
#3
I take my little brother to the hospital because he has a tumor that no one knows about.
I tell my Dad that he shouldn’t sell his company because we end up homeless.
I buy bitcoin.
I live with my family and appreciate them.
I go to an IHOP many years later and find the waitress, I ask her on a date, hopefully I can keep both my families this time.
Seule Forever 4 years ago
I'm sorry you had to live through so much pain and regrets... I hope you're doing ok.
Wandaluzt 4 years ago
This was posted on Reddit. They won't see this reply.
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Rugchairclockdog 4 years ago
They're worth a lot if you sell at the right time
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#4
Don’t date my first girlfriend. Try to maintain friendships while moving. Take college more seriously. Buy Bitcoin. Hug my grandparents more often.
lazy panda 4 years ago
I'll be your adopted grandchild! All of my grandparents passed when I was young and I miss them terribly.
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Michelle M 4 years ago
My grandparents died when I was 15. They raised me, so I think of them always. I would give anything to say goodbye to them
#5
Everyone saying what they’d do better while I’d be having a total mental breakdown. Can you imagine going back to living with your parents? Waking up at 6am to get a bus to be in class at 8am? Taking exams again? Having to study all over again? I have nightmares about this. Please no, no, I’d rather stay an adult please.
Seule Forever 4 years ago
Being a teen in high school is stressful, juggling between homeworks, studies, social life, family life and possible bullying! And now add social medias, cyberbullying and a freakin' pandemic, teens these days have even MORE stress!
AmmoniteCat 4 years ago (edited)
Ya think? We're going mad, really, it's too much!!! Can't wait to get out of school !
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Carrie DeHaven 4 years ago
At 15 I was really sick and getting sexually harassed by a group of upperclassmen. No thanks. I'll stay an adult.
Shelby Jackson 4 years ago
I'd take that over now any day. Stressing over exams is better than stressing over your house getting foreclosed
Awesome Rob 4 years ago
It would be a little easier to have a do over if you could have all your memories from before. Then you'd know what better to do & what to avoid. Of course it's a friggin nightmare when you can't do anything about it.
El muerto 4 years ago
most people think they'd do things differently, but I don't think so...most things we do is a reaction to what happens around us. and we have probably also forgotten about some important details that matter then...you would avoid some mistakes, but in stead make new ones...that's life
#6
Honestly just the knowledge that lots of the sh*t 15-year old me was agonizing over and worrying about ultimately didn’t bring about the end of the world would help. I’d know which things to stress about and which ones I could let go of.
ThoughtsAreNotFacts 4 years ago
Agree! Worrying about things that never happened. Unnecessary anxiety
#7
Take better care of my teeth.
Looking back, I wish it had been explained that cavities were growing holes in my teeth, and not something invasive, like a bacteria.
Memere 4 years ago
Actually, cavities are caused by a combination of bacteria in the mouth, consuming lots of sugary foods, and not cleaning the teeth after every meal. I lost all my teeth from bruxism (excessive tooth grinding) - if my parents had been willing to spend the extra money, I could have been fitted with a mouth piece to wear at night & saved them.
Raabh Aquino 4 years ago
I'm from Brazil, and my generation grew up being taught this, mouth hygiene was taught in elementary school. In some areas, toothpaste and teethbrushes were distributed in schools. I'm 40 years-old and grew up in a poor neighborhood.
#8
I was in my freshman year of high-school, I'd go back and relive those years being completely and totally myself like I should have done way back when.
Porch Santa 4 years ago
Had a paper to write about “who else I would rather be”. Refused and barely passed the class. No regrets said the cat
#9
Stop caring about what anyone thinks
Raven DeathShade 4 years ago
You're around 15, right? I'm just a bit older. Might I suggest becoming a goth if you have any bent that way? Generally, since we stand out so starkly from the crowd, it kinda forces you to stop caring about others' opinions of you and just be yourself.
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Little king trash mouth 4 years ago
I'm 40 and struggle with this daily. I don't know why I can't just let it go. I say I don't give a f**k about anyone's opinion of me, but that is definitely not true. I know I'd be so much happier if I could just really not care.
Nevits Yibble 4 years ago (edited)
I care if it's people who are important to me (well, mostly). But for total strangers - yes, you shouldn't give a f***. Think of it as completely handing control of your feelings over to others. You're now dangling from their marionette strings. Useless people who mean nothing to you should never have that kind of power over your emotions. Only you should have it.
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Mobey Drunk 4 years ago
Actually, that's what helped have a better adolescence. I was picked on and ridiculed constantly. Once I stopped letting them get to me, I took away the power they had over me.
Thay 4 years ago
I try. I have bad days though and sometimes its hard to say screw it im me. But most days I can let myself be like aww yeah imma do me idc who sees or what they think cuz they dont know me and im not bothering anyone really. Im within my legal/social limit. Just like everyone else
#10
Buy up domain names and sell them after internet gets more mainstream
Stannous Flouride 4 years ago
That worked very briefly until the copyright/trademark laws were expanded to include variations* of domain names. (*like adding dots, spaces, underscores, etc.)
Nevits Yibble 4 years ago
Best decision I made in the mid 90s was grabbing my own name - in multiple domain suffixes (.com, .net, .org). 25 years later I still have them (and still paying for them - although it's not that much).
Marcellus the Third 4 years ago
There is not that much money to be made, and the more lucrative ones especially brand-related ones will be taken away really easily from you without compensation under ICANN rules. "Buy or mine bitcoin" would have been easier and more rewarding advice.
#11
I am hugging my grandfather for a solid 5 minutes.
Eva Muller 4 years ago
I would rather go back to when I was around 8-9, maybe 10. My father would still be alive, and maybe I would be able to stop him from drinking (best father in the world. Always had time for me. Always knew he loved me. Never knew he was drunk, he was just happy. But it was a fake happy, ya know?). Help my mom get the right medication for her MS earlier and have her stop taking hormones, so she wouldn't get breastcancer (she is in remission, but can't get the good MS medication anymore, because of the cancer) And also.. So so so many hugs!!
Jane Dorothy Warner 4 years ago
I never met my grandfathers, but I would so totally hug my father who passed from cancer :(
#12
Well, knowing me, I don't make the stupid choices I made for the past 31 years. But also knowing me, I would make totally different stupid choices. Because I'm human. Just because I could now avoid the traps I had fallen into back then, this does not mean I would not fall into different traps. But hopefully the sum total would be a better life.
I know there are career changes I would make. There are financial decisions I would do a better job with. For instance, on the day I graduated college Apple stock sold for 15 cents a share. If I had bought $5000 worth of Apple stock that day, I could sell that today for 4.6 million dollars. So there's that.
Doris Bennett 4 years ago
I'd keep all the Apple stock I had in '86 and not sell it when it doubled.
Mobey Drunk 4 years ago
This is the most realistic post on here. Going back to stop one mistake, only to make another. We all have things in our past that we'd like to change, but we could have more problems that resulted from those changes.
#13
I’d live in existential dread that somehow, somewhere I’d mess something up in the chain of events that led to me meeting my wife and the subsequent birth of my children. Life without my children would destroy me. Utterly.
Neil Bidle 4 years ago
Best comments for sure. No matter how rough the path we take, it always leads to where we are now so unless your life is super crappy and you have nothing to lose, changing your past could be a terrible idea.
Daniel Gilroy 4 years ago
Yeah, I sometimes fantasize about what I'd do if I suddenly found myself in my 15 year old body, and I keep thinking that despite all the stupid stuff I did back then it led to now, which is pretty damned good.
#14
Warn my grandma that she has cancer that will kill her in 9 years because they caught it too late.
Emily Phillips 4 years ago
Same. My dad died 4 days after being diagnosed with liver cancer.
Load More Replies... #15
I wouldn't be too afraid to report my father to the authorities. I wouldn't live life in fear of his hands. I would fight back like I never did.
ShadowLand 🇨🇦 4 years ago
I totally understand this fear. My mother was very abusive. In all aspects. It messes you up. PTSD never goes away. 😥
#16
People here are getting rich or saving lives but I'm 100% using this as an opportunity to deploy all the clever responses I came up with hours later in response to various people.
I still have a lot of them memorised thanks to my brain's love of reviewing stupid things I've said and done over the decades late at night so I feel pretty prepared.
just another bookish gay 4 years ago
i never thought of that but that is such a good idea! every single time i've thought of what i should have said way too late...
#17
Be single and lonely for a while. Holy sh*t do I not want anything to do with most high schoolers.
Stannous Flouride 4 years ago
Your sarcasm was missed apparently. Either that or those downvoting you think it's a good idea.
Load More Replies... #18
Tell my parents I was depressed and go through therapy/get medicated.
Ask that girl out. She's a wonderful person and she absolutely has a crush on you.
Talk to more people and stop pushing them away. You won't disappoint them and they won't hurt you.
Fix your relationship with your mom. She will have cancer later so make the time count.
Learn Viet. Your grandparents will get sicker and you'll want to be able to talk to them before they leave.
Stop worrying about embarrassing yourself. For every person that may think you're cringy for your interests, there'll be another who'll think they're cool.
Stop playing CSGO all the time and explore those hobbies that you always wanted to get into. I know you're depressed but you'll regret wasting all that time on a game you hate.
Things will get better.
Suzanne Haigh 4 years ago
I am constantly reading "things will get better" but when? I have hoped this for over 40 years, they have not yet.
#19
All the fun of these hypotheticals vanished the moment my daughter was born.
I know that realistically I'd never be able to recreate the exact circumstances to have the same child, but I'd have to put everything I have into trying... doing otherwise is unimaginable. It would be years and years of stress and planning and dread knowing that I'm essentially doomed to fail at the only thing that matters, the one thing I'm trying desperately to achieve. Along with the constant feeling that I'm being an idiot to pour myself into something that will never work, and the guilt of even contemplating giving up.
And there's basically no good ending, eventually I either have a child who's clearly not her and try desperately not to burden them with my grief, or I have a child who might be her and I spend the rest of my life struggling to deal with thoughts of "Is it really her?" without my preoccupation messing her up, or I give up and live feeling like I abandoned my daughter and erased her from existence. And god, my poor wife in all of this.
Basically, "What if you got to re-do your life?" used to be a fun thought experiment. Then I met the love of my life and adopted a couple cats and it got more emotionally complicated. Then I had a perfect baby girl and imagining this scenario became like imagining hell.
HammerzToe 4 years ago
Don't over think it. Things have a way of working out. Reminds me of a saying, "No matter where you go, there you are."
Atopher Bot 4 years ago
Alternate timeline theory! My thought is that the timeline I left to go back in time will still exist. The kids will keep on going, but this time you can have different ones. It is sad that you will not see them again, but if one waits until the end of life to go back, then you can carry the happy memories with you as you build new relationships and not mourn the loss of missed experiences.
#20
Lose fat, start lifting weights and running, play less video games, sleep more.
Jason Boling 4 years ago
It's as easy to give old you hard things to do as future you and as easy to not do them in the present.
K Witmer 4 years ago
Who are you to tell people what to do w their bodies. You belong on the boomer post or maybe go back in time to change how you became so judgemental
Load More Replies... #21
I’d want to tweak a few things. Hit the pricks who messed with me. Kiss the girl when I should’ve. Spent more time with my old man. Little things
#22
I wouldn't go to University, possibly travel more and spend a bit more time deciding the direction I want to go with my life.
#23
Go straight to my room, blast Powerman 5000 from my humongous CD player, and bury my head in my pillow while I cry. High school was a living hell for me and living with my stepmom was a living hell but after I came to terms with my situation, I’d find my dad (who died last year), hug him tight then go and do the same with my grandparents.
Then after that I might cut down a bully or three. I’ve gotten surprisingly good at insults and standing up for myself in my old age.
Oh! And have a DQ blizzard. I wasn’t lactose intolerant at 15 and holy sh*t do I miss blizzards.
#24
Get some bitcoin, put a lot of effort into regularly working out, learn professional cooking skills so I can whip up fancy food for myself
#25
Focus on high school a bit better, try and keep in touch with my best friend at that time a bit better after she moved across town, talk with my dad more about family and stuff, apologize for being a little sh*t in middle school more. Figure out my major a lot faster.
#26
First I'd break up with my girlfriend at the time.
1. It wasn't a good relationship, both of us did some fu**ed up s**t that only inexperienced people would
2. I would be 25 in mind and she'd be 15
M O'Connell 4 years ago
I think I would do the same. It was a good relationship, but it went on for far too long, and we both missed out on experiencing different things with different people.
#27
Oh man, I have an whole plan for such things.
Background, I've been disabled since I was 4. T1 diabetes and being on the spectrum sucked combined with back then (90s) learning disabilities not being as "accepted" at my schools so they tried to forcibly correct me and it went horribly wrong.
So, thing the first: High school. I wouldn't let it stress me out and push me to the breaking point like it did. I almost died in HS because things got so bad with my T1 diabetes and it spiraled so far out of control that it almost took me out. No. We're not fu*king doing that s**t. The walk for the diploma isn't worth it. If I fail, I fail, we make this up in community college. FU*K high school.
Thing the second: Fight harder to get your disability benefits. My mom had representative payee status over me and it kinda fu*ked everything up, so I had to go to work for a retail job that didn't give a singular fu*k that I was diabetic. I ran my sorry ass into the ground so hard that I'm still cleaning up the mess almost 10 years after I got fired. If anything, THIS is what utterly fu*ked me and THIS is the thing I would change the most.
(I finally got my benefits...way too late into that job. And by the end of it I was making so little at that job that I was 90% living on disability anyway. I should have quit and salvaged what I could. But I am dumb.)
Thing the third: Fu*k the job once disability is done, go the fu*k to college. Community college would have been easily affordable and where I live there are plenty of grants and waivers. I should have taken advantage of them. Again, I am an idiot.
Fourth, and definitely not least: SEE A FU*KING DENTIST. That's another thing older me had to clean up and it wasn't pretty. I'm in a good place now (bless my SO for helping cover the dental bills because disability sure fu*king didn't) but man, I could have saved myself a TON of hurt down the line if I wasn't so scared of the dentist.
I post this in hopes that maybe someone is currently in my situation, reads this, and knows to get the fu*k out or advocate for oneself before things get so bad that older you is going to have a right mess on their hands to clean up. It's not fun.
Mariza 4 years ago
As I lie on my sofa in a super dark place only a year in to ASD diagnosis, being fired for being ASD and feeling utterly stuck... know that you've reached one person. I hear you. I needed to hear this. Also being targeted by a neighbour and starting the road to an injunction. I'm terrified. But thank you
Emma Byrne 4 years ago
I hear you, I just got an ASD diagnosis at nearly 40. I'm rooting for you and hope you can resolve things with your neighbour. I'm thinking of you <3
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snipergun 4 years ago
I read a lot of painful stuff and I can't even imagine how it is, but the most painful thing I'm reading is you blaming / hating yourself. Please don't. From what I read you took very hard path and a lot of these better choices you couldn't know and I'm sorry for that, but you need to forgive yourself for being child / young / not knowledgeable about everything. And you're stil fighting despite all, i hope you will find the way how to be happy.
María Hermida 4 years ago
You are not an idiot. You made decisions based on the information and the situation you had there and then. People are always willing to judge others, but nobody knows what a person is suffereing or what their reasons are to act the way they do.
#28
Save more money. Take better care of my teeth. Not eat as much junk. Not date people who were just a waste of time. Not worry as much. Appreciate the irreplaceable things more. Not say some mean/wrong things I said. Choose a different career path.
#29
Move out as soon I become 16. My parents were very toxic and harmful for my mental health.
#33
Take a different course in college. IT perhaps? Stay off the internet. Be more open and social. Work on my interpersonal skills. Build connections. Build a better relationship with my family.
#34
Made sure I started my relationship with my soon to be wife when I first met her instead of waiting a year. Would of warned my mother about her lungs so she would still be here with me. Outside of those major changes probably would had made some investments in bit coin dodge and game stop and help my family out with the gains.
#35
I’d be terrified. I hadn’t met the love of my life then. I’d be scared I’d change things and end up never meeting him.
#36
The first part of my brain would be 'time to be the popular guy who makes it with the ladies', shortly followed by 'oh god i still don't know how to be a flirt of any kind', followed by 'Oh wait, these are all fifteen year old kids. This is now super weird.' Then i don't know, just find a way to buy stocks in google.
#37
I think the truth is, if this were to happen, the results would turn out to be bittersweet. It's easy to solve past problems in our minds, and maybe those solutions would actually work in a time travel scenario. But life adapts and new, unexpected situations always show up. So I'd probably end up running into another problem further down the line and regretting a different decision. There's a lot of comments in this thread about taking advantage of financial decisions. Maybe I'd become a Bitcoin billionaire. But who's to say that I wouldn't suffer the same fate as lottery winners... taxes, bankruptcy, fake friends, etc...
#38
Uhh... watch my dad die all over again I guess, since by my 15th birthday it was already too late to treat his cancer. Miss my kids, knowing they'll never exist. Buy some bitcoin, I guess, and overdose on cocaine on the yacht that I keep in the pool of my other yacht.
What do you think ?
Ozacoter 4 years ago (edited)
I would hate being back. When I was young I had hopes for a good future, worked hard, was healthy, a good kid etc. If I knew then that i would end up misserable ill and in pain I wouldn't have any will to keep trying. I am glad that I was naive and happy for some years.
denzoren 4 years ago
I would take more chances if I could go back. I'd pay a little more attention at Uni and probably change majors. I was always astronomically bad at flirting, expressing how I feel and telling who was actually interested in me...so I'd correct that. I'd spend less time on other people and more time on myself.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
Not give in to pretty much every boy that wanted something from me is the biggest thing I would change. I would also make better financial decisions and actually save money.
Daria B 4 years ago
Me, I'd try to find ways how to go "back to the future". I don't want to relive what I already completed. It's like playing a game, progressing really far, and then you turn it off and realise when your last save was. No, thanks! What I WOULD love to do, however, is meeting my past self. I'd conduct an experiment. I'd give her a smartphone (they didn't exist back when I was 15) and I'd see whether it works or not, and whether we can stay connected across time-space. Knowing myself, I'm sure she'd be excited to collaborate.
Thorfin Wolfsbane 4 years ago
The funny thing about all of these is that the answers presuppose the world would unfold exactly the same regardless of their different decisions. Any changes, no matter how small, could drastically alter the future (except the ones about brushing teeth and exercising), not to mention even if everyone did everything the same, the future could still be very different.
Daria B 4 years ago (edited)
You were downvoted, but I agree. Also, some of these don't take into account that other people might have no knowledge of what's inside their heads, so to them, they're just a little teen with no experience about life. So, "telling your parents to do this instead of that" might need careful planning. The manga Erased deals with this topic very well. Satoru, the protagonist, in the eyes of everyone else is nothing but a kid, so he has to plan carefully to discover and prevent a serial killer commit the murders that occurred in a different timeline.
Load More Replies... Ozacoter 4 years ago (edited)
I would hate being back. When I was young I had hopes for a good future, worked hard, was healthy, a good kid etc. If I knew then that i would end up misserable ill and in pain I wouldn't have any will to keep trying. I am glad that I was naive and happy for some years.
denzoren 4 years ago
I would take more chances if I could go back. I'd pay a little more attention at Uni and probably change majors. I was always astronomically bad at flirting, expressing how I feel and telling who was actually interested in me...so I'd correct that. I'd spend less time on other people and more time on myself.
Foxxy (The Original) 4 years ago
Not give in to pretty much every boy that wanted something from me is the biggest thing I would change. I would also make better financial decisions and actually save money.
Daria B 4 years ago
Me, I'd try to find ways how to go "back to the future". I don't want to relive what I already completed. It's like playing a game, progressing really far, and then you turn it off and realise when your last save was. No, thanks! What I WOULD love to do, however, is meeting my past self. I'd conduct an experiment. I'd give her a smartphone (they didn't exist back when I was 15) and I'd see whether it works or not, and whether we can stay connected across time-space. Knowing myself, I'm sure she'd be excited to collaborate.
Thorfin Wolfsbane 4 years ago
The funny thing about all of these is that the answers presuppose the world would unfold exactly the same regardless of their different decisions. Any changes, no matter how small, could drastically alter the future (except the ones about brushing teeth and exercising), not to mention even if everyone did everything the same, the future could still be very different.
Daria B 4 years ago (edited)
You were downvoted, but I agree. Also, some of these don't take into account that other people might have no knowledge of what's inside their heads, so to them, they're just a little teen with no experience about life. So, "telling your parents to do this instead of that" might need careful planning. The manga Erased deals with this topic very well. Satoru, the protagonist, in the eyes of everyone else is nothing but a kid, so he has to plan carefully to discover and prevent a serial killer commit the murders that occurred in a different timeline.
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