My family turned my failure into a public joke, so I waited until they realized the joke was on them.

she returned home that afternoon carrying a cardboard box, Linda sat in the living room watching television. Emily tried explaining what had happened, but her mother interrupted before she could finish.

“Fired again?” Linda snapped. “Emily, you are thirty years old. At some point, maybe the problem is you.”

That night, Emily sat on the bathroom floor continue reading …