15 Weeks, Switch, and Start Over

Before, during, and after I spent four years in college majoring in Spanish and minoring in French, I worked in offices. I ran a switchboard in a bank — I mean, a real switchboard with wires and holes, like the one Lily Tomlin had on “Laugh In.” (Google it, youngsters.) I worked as a merchandising secretary in a shoe factory. I worked as a filing clerk in a student loan center and as a typist in a Child Guidance Center. The one thing all my jobs had in common was my getting yelled at for talking too much to my co-workers, which I did because I was bored stiff with sitting in an office for hours at…