You spend half your life building someone. A parent everyone leans on. The one at work who always has the answer. A person who's always fine. Then one day it stops feeling like enough. Nothing's wrong on the outside. Job's fine, home's fine. It still feels empty. The part of you that built all that is scared right now. It's been holding things together at home and at your desk for years, and it just found out it isn't the only one who has to. So it asks scared questions. Who am I if I'm not needed? Am I still worth something if I stop giving? Will people still stay if I stop being the one who delivers? That part doesn't need to go. It got you here. It just needs a smaller chair. Let something quieter take the front seat. The part that asks what's true, not what keeps everyone impressed. Nothing here is dying. Just the version of you that you don't need anymore.
"I don't know" stops the talk right there. Nothing good comes next. It sounds honest. It isn't. It really means, "just tell/ask me more." It asks someone else to do the work. Say this instead: "I'm not sure, but maybe—" That's not weak. That's infact brave. It keeps you in the talk. Proactively. We grew up scared to guess wrong. So we stopped guessing out loud when we don't know. Or We want to be just lazy to engage. So say what you can. Engage when you don't know. See where it goes. No one needs you right. They need you trying. Engaging!