Have you ever had a childhood friend who was your ride or die until you suddenly grew apart? This happens in people’s lives more often than you’d think.
Often in our lives, we begin to realize that we’re becoming increasingly out of touch with old friends. And no, it’s not because they’ve done something terrible to hurt us. You’d find the best of friends who have shared everything about their lives with each other for years, suddenly not able to speak more than three sentences to each other.
More often than not, the reason for this is pretty simple – you’ve outgrown your friendship.
Here’s how you’ll know that this is the case:
1. YOU NO LONGER SHARE THE SAME INTERESTS
Do you remember how you’re no longer interested in many of the things you did in high school? It might look like your friends have not moved on from the “good old days” when you already have. They might still use the same slangs you now find yourself cringing at, and you might even feel more mature-minded than them. Basically, the things you enjoyed doing together then no longer entertain you.
2. LACK OF COMMUNICATION
Another telling factor that shows that you may have outgrown your friendship is that you no longer communicate as much as you used to. Running out of things to talk about isn’t a viable excuse here. Often times with your friends, you find it hard to run out of things to discuss.
3. YOU CAN’T KEEP UP THE SAME ENERGY
Have you ever been in a situation where you were so excited to see a friend after so many years of no contact, but it doesn’t look like they’re that thrilled to see you? The chances are that they have overgrown their friendship with you. No matter how many times you want to hang out and catch up, they never seem to have any time for you. When you do eventually meet up, they look bored and might even leave halfway through.
4. HOLDING BACK
When you’ve outgrown your friends, you’ll no longer feel comfortable sharing important details of your life with them. You begin to hold back all the relevant details, and your communication becomes superficial. One sign of outgrowing a friendship is when you no longer talk to the friend because you’re scared that they will judge your actions or share them with the world, when that has never been an issue before. This leads us to our next point.
5. TRUST ISSUES
One of the ways to determine that you’ve outgrown a friendship is that you no longer trust the person to keep your secrets. This can happen when you’ve lost touch for a while or have experienced with this individual before.
Friendship breakups are something that many feel guilty about, especially when there is no bad blood. However, this process happens quite often as we go through life. If you’ve drifted apart with your friend and you want to work on rebuilding your friendship, you can always initiate a way to return things back to normal. If that doesn’t work out, it may be time to let go and move on.
HAVE YOU OUTGROWN A FRIENDSHIP? HOW DID YOU HANDLE IT?
