Somebody has to actually book the group trip. You:

Book it. It's done. Everyone can complain to you afterwards.Refuse to commit until you know exactly what the beds are like.Send nine links in four minutes and book precisely none of them.Check who can genuinely afford it before anybody puts money in.Book the one with the view, because we are only doing this once.Build the spreadsheet everyone later pretends they didn't need.

It's 11pm and someone suggests going out. You:

You are already in. Not in the going-out sense. In.You are dressed before they have finished the sentence.You go, mostly because they sounded like they needed company.You go, and it somehow becomes a night people bring up for years.You go, and quietly make sure everybody gets home afterwards.You deliberate for forty minutes, go anyway, and have a lovely time.

Someone tells you a secret that wasn't theirs to tell. You:

Feel the shape of it in your mouth for the rest of the week.Worry mainly about the person the secret is actually about.Tell them off for telling you, then keep it perfectly for years.Notice immediately which parts of it cannot possibly be true.Wish they hadn't, because now you are holding something uneven.Keep it. Forever. You were quite clearly built for this.

Your ideal evening at home:

Everyone you love in one room, eating something you made them.Six people you like, one excellent playlist, all the lights on.One job finished properly and a kitchen that is actually clean.Good company, nice glasses, and nothing at all to be decided.One person, one very long conversation, both phones face down.Honestly? Not at home. There is somewhere you haven't been.

Someone criticises your work in front of other people. You:

Feel it in your chest for three days and mention it to nobody.Silently agree with the accurate half, and fix that part tonight.Smile, defuse it, and privately never forget the room's face.Say nothing at all, and revise your opinion of them permanently.Say the true thing straight back, cheerfully, meaning no harm.Take the note, file it, and out-work it by the end of the quarter.

How you handle a rule you are sure is wrong:

Follow it exactly, and document precisely why it does not work.Argue both sides so well that nobody spots which one is yours.Ignore it quietly, and never once explain that you are ignoring it.Say out loud, at volume, in company, that it is stupid.Follow it until you are senior enough to delete it yourself.Break it on principle, and write a short essay explaining why.

A friend is upset and won't say why. You:

Make everything around them easier until they are ready to talk.Already know why. Wait for them to say it out loud anyway.Take them somewhere completely different for the afternoon.Offer the practical thing that will actually shrink the problem.Ask the direct question everyone else is being too polite to ask.Feel it so thoroughly that you are now also upset about it.

The thing you are genuinely worst at:

Letting anything go once you have decided it was a betrayal.Staying anywhere past the point where it stopped being interesting.Resting without first constructing a justification for it.Wanting the thing everyone else wants, even when you do want it.Knowing where you end and somebody else's mood starts.Waiting. Any waiting at all. Any amount of it, ever.

You get an unexpected free week. You:

Go somewhere. Decide where once you are actually at the airport.Finally do the thing you have been postponing for two years.Disappear into a subject nobody on earth asked you to learn.Let the whole thing dissolve, beautifully, into not very much.Start the project you have been threatening everyone with for months.Do absolutely nothing, extremely well, in a very good chair.

What people get wrong about you:

They think you are cold. You are just extremely busy.They think you are aloof. You are just several rooms ahead.They think you are vague. You are attending to other things.They think you are angry. You have just finished deliberating.They think you are lazy. You are just not going to do it badly.They think you are flaky. You are interested in all of it.

Your actual role in a group project:

The one asking whether this project should exist at all.The one who makes it beautiful at 2am for no extra credit.The one who has started before the meeting has finished.The one who does their part well and will not be hurried.The one who talks to everybody and connects the loose pieces.The one who spots who is drowning and quietly helps them.

You want the last word on you to be:

As the person who made everyone feel a little less alone.As the person who went first, every time, without being asked.As the person whose home you could always just turn up at.As the person who was never, on any occasion, boring.As the person who kept everybody together through all of it.As the person who made it fun to be in the room at all.