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Yes, today we want to introduce a
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special short story with the lovely
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title "Back Exit," and we will see that
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sometimes it is better to write than to
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snap back. You can already tell a bit
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that this is about something that helps
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in dealing with conflicts. The conflict
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simply consists of a so-called cleaning
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lady, a woman who cleans a restroom,
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heading out with trash bags and almost
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colliding with someone who turns away
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angrily, saying, "Is there no back exit
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for people like you?" And with that, we
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have already reached the title of the
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story. Now the question is, what to do?
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Snap back, take revenge somehow,
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swallow your anger, or is there perhaps
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a fourth possibility, one involving a
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note that says "unacceptable" and, in
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the very end, a poised appearance
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before a school class. And we will
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briefly introduce that now. We are
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presenting the story here in brief. On
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the left, you can see it consists of
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about two pages, but you can read
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through it at your leisure. We will
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also create an audio version here in
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the video. You can listen to that, and
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we will, of course, include it
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accordingly in this video. So the
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starting point is a sentence that hits
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home: "Is there no back exit for people
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like you?" Basically two humiliations
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right there, and that is what this man
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says. Suit, rolling suitcase in hand,
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phone to his ear, speaking to a young
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woman who, as we said, cleans the
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restrooms. He doesn't even lower the
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phone. We can take another look at that
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here. He simply doesn't care at all
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about what is happening. What he
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doesn't know is that this woman studied
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German literature and even earns money
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very well. She uses this job to support
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her studies, and in her smock pocket,
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there is always a notebook. Now the
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question is what one could do about it,
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as we have already mentioned, right?
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Snapping back is certainly a solution.
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Understandable, but then he might have
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even more power over this woman, as he
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remains the superior one, this man.
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Swallowing it is possible, of course,
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but that sentence stays with you,
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weighs you down, doesn't exactly boost
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your self-confidence; planning revenge
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is tempting, but then you become what
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you don't want to be, and we don't even
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want to imagine that. And our heroine
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here chooses a fourth path. She writes
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—behind that is a short story we read
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recently called "The Doom." That one is
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also about a restroom attendant who
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falls in love in a park with a young
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man who eventually asks her, "And what
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do you do for a living?" And then she
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says quite openly that she cleans
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restrooms, and for that man, that is
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simply unacceptable, and he leaves. And
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in the "Back Exit" here in this story,
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the heroine remembers exactly that text
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. This time the story is supposed to
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end differently, and with this, we want
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to encourage everyone who just feels
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like rethinking a story that didn't
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have a very happy ending. We have now
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made the structure of the story visible
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here on the right. You can then read
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along accordingly. The beginning is
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definitely in the tone of Dodra as well
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. She was young, she was smart, and she
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was also a student. And immediately the
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narrator intervenes: where is the catch
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? Patience. We liked that, and it's an
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interesting idea, in a way, not just to
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tell a story, but to comment on it for
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the reader. Then the collision at the
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glass door. A gesture, a sentence.
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That’s all it takes for an insult.
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Then at some point, the young woman
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remembers Schiller, and Schiller once
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said something that might help every
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now and then: where laws end, where you
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can't get to this man, the tribunal of
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the stage begins. Schiller was always
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of the opinion that you have to bring
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the great sinners of the past, the
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powerful, the dictators, onto the stage
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and show all their wickedness there.
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But that is not our topic. We will show
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that a laptop might actually achieve
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more here. And then she sits there in
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the evening in front of the laptop and
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initially portrays the man in the story
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in a very negative light. She deletes
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this draft. But as mentioned, the first
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text is mean. It shows the man down to
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his tie, down to the details. Because
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it’s not about him, but about this
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condescending look that she remembers
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so well. And then a sequel follows with
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its own standard, namely an invented
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man who actually isn't interested
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anymore, but he is measured by his own
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behavior. No poison, no malice, nothing
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spiteful, nothing insulting. But the
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effect is that she uploads it as a post
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. She is a YouTuber, after all, and she
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sends it out accordingly, and then a
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waitress, a geriatric nurse, and a
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delivery driver respond. They have all
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had this experience and write: me too.
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And the ending, well, we’ll only
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reveal bits of that here. It is
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definitely worth taking a closer look
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at the story we will be publishing on
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the website, namely the point is, let's
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just take a look at this here on the
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page; this morning it had 3,000
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comments. A waitress wrote it, as we
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just mentioned. What happened after
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that can be told briefly. A publisher
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got in touch, then a broadcaster, then
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a school that invited her for a reading
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, and she is now supposed to show how
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you can achieve something with YouTube.
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And she even pulled her report card out
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of the drawer to show that she has
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something to offer. And at the reading,
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a student asks what she actually does
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for a living. And then she says, I
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write. And after a short pause, without
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any apology, and on Tuesdays I clean at
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the main train station. That causes
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astonishment at first, but also shows
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that this woman has gained
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self-confidence from the whole
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experience. And you can really see here
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how it pays off to do something, be it
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a YouTube channel or posting somewhere
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and so on, where you notice how you are
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received. And we are linking to this
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entire story here on this page.
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Corrections, additions, answers to
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questions, and browsing can be found
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there. As always, there will of course
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be a button here, which hopefully is
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still displayed up here, and you can go
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directly to the page where we have
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presented it in more detail so you can
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read all about it. We would be happy if
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this was an inspiration to get a bit
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more involved with writing. Not just in
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terms of analysis, but also considering
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, instead of taking revenge or similar,
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it doesn't even have to be about
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something negative to deal with things,
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just publishing it in a story. But
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please, be careful, right? It shouldn't
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be the case, as in this instance, that
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someone is exposed. It is enough to
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simply treat the case there. In any
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case, we wish you much success with
