Fixing a friend's remote at a movie night was more tense than I expected

I was just trying to watch a film, but when the remote died, my buddy handed it to me like I was on call. It hit me that my repair rep follows me everywhere, even during downtime. (I used a spare battery from my keychain, by the way.)

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sage1mo ago

Feel that pressure deep. Like you can't just be a person at a movie, you're the fix-it guy first. It makes you wonder when the job title starts to eat up your regular name. Does that bug you because they expect it, or because you kind of automatically step into that role without thinking? What part of that moment stuck with you after the movie started?

noah_mitchell1mo ago

Turned it into a game where I'd physically move seats to break the autopilot switch. The part that stuck was watching their faces change from "oh good the tech guy is here" to "oh wait he's just some dude watching a trailer now." That silent shift felt like getting my name back.

noah_nelson291mo ago

It happens all the time, right? People get tagged as the capable one, so they stop being asked to pass the popcorn and start getting handed broken stuff. You see it at cookouts when one friend always gets stuck at the grill, or in group chats where one person plans every single thing. When does a helping hand just become your permanent label?