So, I broke my chair.
I’m not saying I broke my chair by doing something irresponsible or life threatening or trying to race down the parking lot or anything.
No.
I sneezed.
I sneezed and broke my mother-flipping chair. How does that happen? HOW?
Let me explain it as best I can. My desk is in the front, you might think I was the receptionist, but I’m not. Thankfully, for them at least, I would be a terrible secretary.
“What paycheck?”
I was doing some writing (it is in my job description as ‘writer’) and I was wedged up to my desk nice and snug. I was sitting more towards the edge of my chair and typing out something as I was listening to some music on my Bose headphones.
“Makin’ my way downtown, walkin’ fast, faces pass and I’m home bound!”
Without warning, I had a surprise sneeze. Not a super violent sneeze or anything, just a normal sneeze.
Immediately, I heard a small pop. I thought the quick action had popped the lever out of its place. You know, the little lever on the side on the chair that makes it so the chair will either lean back to stay up straight.
So I didn’t really think anything of it. I do like my chair up straight so I tried to lean forward to put the lever back into place.
When I tried though, the lever was already in place and the chair was wobbling wildly.
I still had my headphones on at this point, so I took them off to maneuver easier without a cord wrapping around me. When I took off the headphones I could hear my coworkers calling out to me.
Coworker: “Are you okay, out there?”
Me: “Uh, yeah.”
Boss: “Did you fall over?”
Me: “No. I think I broke my chair.”
Coworker: “What? How?”
Me: “Um, I’m not sure.”
So I finally wheel back a little and realize how bad the wobbliness really was. It was obviously broken more than I thought it was.
I overturned the chair and found this.
Yeah. I broke metal. METAL.
Now sure, I’m a big fella, like a pretty big fella. I’m 6’2” and look like I’m about 250 to 260 pounds when in actuality I’m heavier. My shoulders are incredibly broad and if I really put my mind to it I probably could be some sort of heavy weight lifter. It’s not for me, but I could do it.
So now I’m in my new job and within the first month of being here I broke my chair, by sneezing.
About this time is when I try and merge this anecdote into some sort of marketing or video production “life lesson”, so I’ll give it a try.
Don’t be caught feeling comfortable in what you’re doing, whether it be video scripting, writing, animation, marketing, or creating; a sneeze might come along and force you to stand all day with a cardboard box propping up your keyboard so you can type.
Because you’ll look like a full-fledged moron standing next to a broken chair.