Other kids might look at you 
with a certain amount of                                                                     side-eye
if you tell them that your dream when you grow up
is to be a secretary in an office.
But I have been fortunate to know 
many kind office assistants throughout my life,
people who knew everything,
fixed everything,
knew everyone,
and fixed everyone.
They were all as close to omniscient about their workplaces
as humans could reasonably be,
but too many of my classmates thought
that that job could only be
held by a woman. 
These friends did not measure
the desire to help others
even if that eagerness was balanced
with a biweekly disgust for Excel spreadsheets.
So I kept this ambition a secret
until I had seated myself at other tables
to feed other appetites,
but I always remembered these observations,
inclinations from my youth,
and I use them to motivate my interactions
and fill them with kindnesses that others will remember.
I may never be the amalgamation 
of administrative assistants from my past
that I had hoped to be when I was much younger,
yet I can still long for a meaning
that I build with people everyday.