Being the Go-To guy

For most parts of my life, I've always been the go-to guy when it comes to my friends. If they needed to get something fixed, I was either the guy they came to for an opinion, or I knew someone who knew someone that could get it fixed.

And I honestly didn't have a problem with it because I was cool with it as long as it meant helping my friends out. But recently, I decided to not always be that guy, not because I was upset with them or exhausted; I guess I just realized that I was always that guy and wanted to know what it would feel like if I took a step back and let them do certain things themselves.

_{photo by Luke van Zyl}

So a couple of days ago, I and two other friends of mine were planning on linking up, and for some reason I noticed that I was placed in the middle of everything. I was the one passing the message to both parties while they both were only speaking to me. I was essentially the middle man, and mind you, the three of us have been close friends for years now, so we all knew each other and had each other's contact.

Well, at one point during the conversation, one of them asked me to go ask the other guy something concerning the meet, and suddenly in my head I was like, No, I'm not doing that. So instead I had told him to go ask the guy himself, which he did.

Usually that wouldn't be a big deal, but it strangely was for me because it made me realize that I didn't necessarily have to be the guy in the middle. I didn't have to do all the things I was doing because any one of them could be doing it too. And that was when I decided to step back from the whole planning thing and just let them handle it instead.

Every time they tried roping me into taking charge of the entire thing, I would immediately pull myself away and just leave them in charge. I don't know if they noticed, and I honestly don't care because the weight I felt that was lifted away from me for no longer being the guy who has to make sure everything turned out great felt really, really nice.