YDK that IDK #2 – You Don’t Know… that I Don’t Know

The Day They Thought I Knew What I Was Doing

It started with a simple sentence.

“You handle it.”

That was it.

No long explanation.
No detailed instructions.
Just quiet confidence… directed at me.

I nodded.

Of course I did.

That seems to be a pattern.

If you’ve ever had someone assume you knew what to do…
when you were still trying to figure out what was to be done…
you know this feeling.

It’s a strange place to stand.

On the outside, you look like the right person for the job.
On the inside, you’re still assembling the basics.

My first instinct was to deflect.

“Maybe someone else…”
“Shouldn’t we check…”
“What exactly do you mean…”

But none of that came out.

Instead, I heard myself say,
“Okay.”

And just like that, something invisible shifted.

Not outside.

Inside.

I didn’t suddenly become confident.
I didn’t suddenly become knowledgeable.

But I became… responsible.

And responsibility has a quiet way of changing how you show up.

I started asking questions.
Not loudly. Not dramatically.

Just enough to move forward.

I made small decisions.
Some right. Some… less right.

I paused when I didn’t know.
And sometimes, I said it.

“I’m not sure. Let me check.”

No one gasped.
No one questioned why I didn’t already know.

Things… moved.

At some point, without announcing itself,
the discomfort reduced.

Not disappeared.

Just… reduced.

Later, someone said,
“Good you handled that.”

I almost laughed.

Handled.

That wasn’t what it felt like.

It felt like figuring things out.

It felt like adjusting constantly

It felt like hoping I wasn’t missing something obvious.

And then it hit me.

Maybe that’s what “handling it” actually looks like.

Not certainty.

Not mastery.

Just… not stepping back.

Maybe most people who seem like they know what they’re doing…

are just people
who didn’t say no
when they could have.

We think confidence comes first.

But sometimes, it’s responsibility that comes first.

And confidence quietly catches up later.

You don’t know that I don’t know.

And sometimes…

I don’t know
until I begin.

YDK that IDK.