I’m Starting to Suspect I’m Everyone’s Emergency Contact and No One’s First Thought

Dear Delyara, People come to me when things break. Panic, shame, grief, marriage fights, health scares, money disasters, lost jobs, crying in parking lots. I know how to be the soft place. I know how to answer those messages in the right order, with the right balance of honesty and tenderness. What I don’t know anymore is who thinks of me first in joy. Or softness. Or curiosity. Or just because they miss me. I’m good for emergencies. I’m not sure I’m chosen in the gentle parts. That’s a devastating thing to understand about your own friendships this late in life. And maybe I’m wrong. But if I am, no one is doing much to prove it.