This one time, during the summer, I worked as a full-time file clerk in a hospital, but there was so much downtime that all I did was practice origami.

I made dozens and dozens of boxes, ninja stars, and paper cranes. And because I didn’t want to take them home or throw them away or have my supervisors find out, I hid my creations around the file room. Sometimes I would write words of encouragement on them for future generations.

I’d like to think a maintenance man changing out the fluorescent lamps could be inspired by a paper crane floating down from the rafters. A paper crane that said, “You’re doing a good job.”

Or the next file clerk moving the desk to reach a fallen pencil, but instead accidentally dislodging a ninja star with the phrase “I believe in you.”

It was a pretty good time…until the last day of my job, when I actually found out that there was some work I should have been doing all along that I somehow completely missed. I still feel bad about that.