The Problem With Being Useful
Sometimes it gets tiring being known as the person that can figure things out. The person with the answers. The calm one. The dependable one. The one people call when life starts moving sideways. At first it feels good, I won’t lie. Makes you feel important. Makes you feel needed. People come to you for advice, for guidance, for reassurance. You become the person that “gets it.” The one that can think clearly when everyone else is panicking. But after a while you start noticing something that doesn’t sit right with you. A lot of people only seem to value you when you’re useful to them. Not because they genuinely want to know you. Not because they care about how your day was or what’s going on in your head. They care about what you can do for them. The emotional support. The advice. The money. The connections. The favours. The solutions. Your value slowly becomes attached to your usefulness. And once you notice that, certain relationships start feeling strange. You start noticing h...