In between these tasks I met my younger sister for lunch. At the moment my sister is working in a solicitor's office (or attorney's, if you're visiting from a land across the water) and is thoroughly enjoying it.
Until she took on this internship (in a state of panic as it was compulsory and she had not come to any arrangement with a company until days before she was due to submit the final details to her supervisor) she had no interest in entering the legal profession. Today she is considering beginning the study that would set her along the road to become a solicitor.
Do not be fooled, this new interest is not inspired by a love of the law.
I have rarely laughed as much as I did listening to my younger sister describe how she spends her days filing papers, submitting documents in the courts and completing whatever other menial secretarial odds and ends are required of her.
I myself would jump at the chance to work right now, if only to have somewhere to go everyday and a steady pay packet (however meager) at the end of the month, however, my sister enjoys staying at home or meeting her friends and she isn't being paid for this current internship. But she adores it.
I had always assumed that the most interesting or amusing stories about working in any branch of the legal profession would derive from scandalous or complex cases or points of law. My sister cares little about the intricacies of such matters and instead takes joy in the little things. By this I mean the little things like paperclips and staplers that the rest of us take for granted or despise.
She described the office photocopier, which processes many different pages at once as 'the Jesus of machines' and could barely contain herself when explaining how a machine works that absorbs documents, places a legal seal upon them and then spits them out the other end. She actually gasped when describing the thrill of using an impressive stapler and expressed extreme disappointment (with much slow head shaking) when referring to another, which did not live up to her expectations.
I have never known anyone to be quite so very enthralled by stationery goods. Unlike many of us (I had thought all of us) she is attracted to the prospect of working in a profession that would provide her with a steady supply of documents to file and order and carefully place in just the right place so that she will be able to find them again when this is necessary. When I asked her whether she would like to be a legal eagle she mused, "well, the courts stuff can be really boring, but I do love the paperwork."
If we did not share as many physical characteristics as we do I might be forced to disown her and declare her a fake. I have always been strangely proud of the disorder with which I conduct my affairs - I think of myself as being somewhat organic, natural and pure because none of my drawers are in order. Tidiness, because it is not my talent, has always seemed alien to me and I have had to persevere to even pretend to resemble a neat freak when friends call around.
So, what have I learnt from my highlighter toting, photocopier-loving little sister? Firstly, those who take joy in organisation (oh you know the types - in school they used three different coloured pens to complete their homework and by the time that they got to college they filed the study notes for different subjects into folders that were colour-coded by course) are not all bad and may even resemble those who think it is very impressive just to be able to find a pen on cue and who loose everything that they are told to take care of and not to misplace.
Secondly, we truly do come in all sorts. Each to their own is one of the most useful phrases ever coined and we would each do well to learn to live by it and recognise that we do not know how the next person thinks.
Finally, talk of photocopying, when described by someone who discusses it with the same relish that some people take when passing on juicy gossip, can be hilarious - who'd have though it.
It's a strange world and you just never know what's going on in the stationery cupboard, someone might even be in there appreciating the stationery.
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