There are certain things in life that you assume everybody just knows, Not because somebody sat them down and taught it to them but because it is the kind of knowledge that lives in common sense, you do not need a manual for it, you do not need a class or a certificate or anyone to explain it to you, you just know, like when you buy a gadget any gadget, from the smallest to the biggest you test it before you leave the shop, that is just what you do, that is the natural order of things.
Or so I thought.
It was a regular day and I needed a ring light, anyone who creates content knows that a ring light is not a want, it is a need, good lighting is the difference between looking like you know what you are doing and looking like you filmed something in a broom cupboard at midnight, so I sent Bridget to go get it for me, Bridget is my younger sister and I trusted her with this simple, straightforward task, Go to the shop, get the ring light, come back, Three steps, that is all.
She came back looking very pleased with herself, the ring light package tucked under her arm like she had just completed a world record, I collected it, set it up, plugged it in, pressed the button and
Nothing.....
I pressed it again, still nothing, I checked the connection, I checked the plug, i tried a different socket, nothing, nothing, and more nothing, the ring light was sitting there completely dead and I was sitting there completely confused.
I turned to Bridget.
"Bridget did you test this before you bought it?"
She looked at me with the most unbothered expression I have ever seen on a human face in my life.
"Test it? I didn't know I was supposed to test it."
I stared at her.
"You didn't know."
"I didn't know." she said it again like repetition was going to make it make more sense.
From across the room I heard Jessy start laughing first, that quiet kind of laugh that someone tries to hold in and cannot, then Abigail followed and within seconds the two of them were gone, fully laughing, not even trying to hide it anymore.
"How do you buy a gadget and not test it?" Jessy managed to say between laughs. "Any gadget, 3ven if it is just a torch, you press it in the shop."
"I just thought it would work." Bridget said, completely unbothered by the chaos she had caused, "It was packaged and everything."
"Packaged." Abigail repeated and dissolved into laughter again.
And that is the thing that got me too, The packaging argument, as if the fact that something comes in a box is a guarantee that it functions, as if factories have never in the history of manufacturing produced a single faulty item, As if the whole reason people test things before leaving shops does not exist, I did not know whether to laugh or cry because I genuinely needed that ring light and now I was sitting with a very well packaged, very useless piece of equipment.
"Bridget." I said, trying to stay calm, "When you buy something electrical you test it, before you pay, before you leave, you make sure it works, that is not something I should have to tell you."
"I know that now." she said.
"You know it now." I repeated.
"I didn't know before." She shrugged like this was a completely acceptable thing to say.
Jessy and Abigail were still laughing, i looked at the dead ring light, i looked at Bridget who was now examining her nails completely unbothered, i looked at the ceiling for strength that was not coming.
The funniest part of the whole thing is that Bridget did not even feel bad, not even slightly, In her mind she had completed the assignment she was given, she went, she bought, she returned, what happened after that was apparently not in her job description.
I went back to the shop myself and tested three ring lights before I settled for one and left with it, Some lessons you learn once.
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