Useless

There are just some moments when you feel so useless.

You can't do anything for anyone. You don't have any control or you don't know what to say.

What do I do in the moments where I feel useless? The feeling of being inadequate, unneeded, or simply not good enough is something that can weigh heavy on your mind and bother you like a pulsating cut on your hand. It isn't easy to shake it off and say to myself, "There's nothing I can do." Of course there is something I can do. But what if I don't know what to do? Do I have to find out what it is that's missing?

Sometimes the people around me are hurt or worried. What do they want me to say? I want them to feel better, but what if I say the wrong things or if I just don't know what to say at all. It's a horrible feeling. It's so hard to stand by and watch, knowing that you could have done something, but you were too unaware or ignorant to find out what it was.

What if they are telling me about their relationship problems? I don't know that much about that stuff. All I know how to say is, "Everything will work out." What if that's not what they want to hear? I don't have a solution. I don't have the answer, the panacea to all the problems in life. But I want to help. How do I do it?

What if they are worrying about school? I know what it's like to worry about grades, but everyone is different. Some people simply don't care. Others only care sometimes. Even more worry themselves into a bottomless pit of depression. People have different ways to cope with stress. Some people are confident that they can improve themselves or that if they fail, they are resilient enough to get back up. Others lack that self-confidence. How do I help them? What do I say to make them hopeful? What can I do to show them that although school is important, it's not the end of everything? It's especially hard when I care about them.

What if they have been emotionally hurt? Gossip or verbal abuse is painful and the pain stings, lingering to elicit even more tears. I don't have that much experience with this stuff. All the hurtful words. I don't really know what to tell them.

I wish that I could always know what to say. Life would be so easy. If I knew what to say at the right time all the time, I wouldn't even have to worry. There wouldn't be any feeling of uselessness. Not a trace.

Unfortunately, that will never happen. What do I do now? For now, I will try my best to be useful.