Today I did battle with installing hanging files in my file cabinet, and I lost. The only thing I can compare this to is last Christmas when my husband and I couldn’t figure out the timer for the Christmas lights; we kept trying to push down the tabs for the different hours, and the darn things just wouldn’t go down. Turns out they come pushed down in the package.
Anyway, I went down to the supply room and retrieved the apparati for hanging file folders. If you’re like me and have a very expensive liberal arts education and no real world experience, these will baffle you. I had two long metal rungs and two rectangles with screws in them. I wasn’t sure if the rectangles were supposed to go through one of the holes in my file cabinet, or what. I didn’t have a screwdriver, but I discovered a penny fit. After a few minutes of testing – which probably looked hysterical to anyone who has ever worked in a real office – I googled it. Thankfully the OfficeDepot website had a photo of what the finished product was supposed to look like…
So I futz with my penny and my bars, and realize my bars are way too long. The OfficeMax website says theirs are “scored to snap off at 1/2-inch increments,” so there is my solution. Of course, I couldn’t figure out how to do this. They’re metal, really strong metal. I tried my bare hands, my desk, my scissors, and nothing happened. So I decided to ask for help. I took my pieces and my thousands of dollars of higher education down the hall to one of our other English teachers, who stuck one end under her foot and yanked until the piece snapped to the size I needed. I then went back to my room and attempted to put everything together with my penny. Moral of the story: when my students ask if they should go to college when they’re pretty sure they shouldn’t, it’s okay to admit they might be successful in the real world without a traditional degree. Obviously, those of us with the traditional degrees aren’t always the brightest bulbs in the box.
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