You don’t have to be the funny one every hour of every day. Your personality is allowed a break.

A role you are good at becomes a role people expect, and eventually you deliver it even on days when you have nothing left. Performing a trait is tiring in a way that simply having it is not. Most people around you would barely register a quieter version, since the expectation is largely your own.

Let one gathering happen this week where you are not working the room. Answer plainly, laugh at other people’s jokes, leave the silences alone. If anybody asks whether you are all right, you can say you are just quiet today and leave it at that.