Don’t let your role in the group chat become your role in life.

Groups hand out roles fast and then expect consistency. You become the funny one, the sensible one, the mess, and after a while the role starts choosing for you: jokes you do not feel like making, problems you bring up because that is your slot. The role was a shorthand somebody invented on a Tuesday, not a description of a whole person.

Do one thing out of character this week, somewhere it will be noticed. Be serious if you are the joker, say nothing if you are the one who fills every silence. That reaction tells you how much of it was convenience and how much was you.