I've been useful my entire life - to my employer, my family, my parents when they were aging - and I'm only now beginning to understand that being useful and being known are not the same thing, and I've had plenty of the first and almost none of the second - Silicon Canals

"Being useful felt like being valuable. Hell, it felt like love. But here's what I'm learning: people needed what I could do. They didn't necessarily need me. And there's a world of difference between those two things."

"I spent decades working in people's homes. I knew their kitchens better than they did. I could tell you where every circuit breaker was, which outlets were on which circuit, where the junction boxes were hidden. But they didn't know anything about me."

A lifetime spent as an electrician provided steady work and a sense of usefulness, but personal recognition was lacking. The realization came when a former colleague couldn't remember the electrician's name, highlighting the difference between being needed for skills and being valued as an individual. Growing up, the focus was on work and providing, with little emphasis on emotional connections. Despite being indispensable in fixing problems, the electrician felt invisible, known only for his trade rather than as a person with feelings and dreams.

Read at Silicon Canals