The Walking ATM

ATM-er does not necessarily mean throwing cash everywhere. It means always being the one who pays. Paying with time, paying with emotional bandwidth, paying with patience, paying with a night that should have belonged to peace and sleep. Other people insert panic and trouble into you like a card into an old but reliable machine, and what comes out is the receipt that says, 'It’s okay, I’ve got this.' Your life is a grand one-person checkout lane that nobody applauds, powered by a responsibility complex that simply refuses to clock out.