The Answer Was Never Outside

You've googled it. You've asked three friends. You've scrolled forty minutes of advice from people who don't know your life, looking for the one sentence that would finally tell you what to do.None of it landed. Not really. It never does, because the question you're actually asking isn't "what should I do", it's "what do I already know and haven't let myself say".

Here's the uncomfortable part: you usually know. You've weighed it before, quietly, and pushed the conclusion down because it was inconvenient, or scary, or meant disappointing someone.

Journaling doesn't hand you a new answer. It just removes the noise you built to avoid the one you had. Write the situation down plainly, no audience, no performance and the sentence you've been avoiding tends to show up on its own, usually a few lines in, usually right after you write "I don't know" and keep going anyway.

That's the actual function of the blank page. Not inspiration. A place quiet enough that your own thinking gets to finish a sentence for once.
Try it before you ask anyone else next time. Write the question exactly as it's bothering you. Then write what you'd say if you weren't worried about the answer.

You'll probably know within five lines.