Over the span of 25 years, I have had a love-hate relationship with my best friend. Mainly cause we don’t have similar interests anymore. Spending time with him now feels draining.

It took me a while to realise the things I am about to say.

Mentally, we outgrow people all the time. It’s the nature of growth.

But just because we outgrow them doesn’t mean we need to break ties with them. Maintaining relationships is hard.

This also means we don’t have to wait around for them. Not everyone is meant to be around all the time. Everyone has their own paths to walk.

Let’s think about this in another way.

In video game lingo, you're the main player and everyone else is an NPC.

NPC - Non-Playable Character.

Basically, a side character.

An NPC just stands at the sidelines like a blob waiting for you to interact with them. If you don’t, they just stay there.

Some NPCs have side quests for you to do. You interact with them. You help them. They help you. But they aren’t going to have a major impact in your journey.

If you spend a lot of time doing side quests, you aren’t going to focus on completing the main campaign.

Some side quests take time so the NPC sticks around. But the levelling up is for you to do.

Same is with life.

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Here’s an illustration to spark your intellectual curiosity this week.

"The difference between 1% and 2% is not just 1%, it’s 100%." — @ys