Hi - I’m very familiar with this feeling - and it points to a very particular set of skills you’ll need as you rank up from 15 to 10 kyu - figuring out how to play a Balanced Opening and manage the transition into Midgame without giving your opponent a huge advantage in the first 50-80 moves
I wrote this article which may help
19 x 19 FOR BEGINNERS: Playing a Balanced Opening
And yes, towards the end of the article, I caution players away from the Chinese Opening, or other openings where each tries to grab about half of the board, and the rest of the game ends up being risky invasions…