Recognized in public (for the first time)

I was recently in Seattle for my company’s annual conference.

As is common for my position, I had some speaking engagements at the conference. Though I’m an introvert, presentations are actually kind of fun for me - and (to me) it’s not really any different from doing a YouTube video.

Anyway, my first engagement was about an hour. At one point in the presentation, I mentioned that, as an engineer I wasn’t quite as polished a presenter as some. It was a throwaway line, and I didn’t think much of it.

However, as I came off of the stage, an attendee waved me over. More or less the interaction went like this:

her: “so you’re an engineer?”

me: “yes”

her: “but are you a dad that’s an engineer?”

me: [reluctantly] “yes?”

Apparently, she listened for about 30 minutes, heard the line, and it clicked.

I guess I sound pretty similar when speaking in public.

Apparently, she was also thrown by me not wearing glasses.

We chatted for about 10 minutes, and I saw her around the convention center a few more times, over the course of the three days. Super cool. Also, completely unexpected.

There’s no deeper story here. I’ve spent most of my life trying to be as invisible as possible. Then I started a YouTube channel, which is kind of the antithesis of that, and them I’m shocked when someone (in a completely unlikely occurrence) recognizes me.

Weird. Also, unlikely to ever happen again. Although, I’m kind of hoping it does…