Hello Inspires We need to talk about something uncomfortable today. It’s a Saturday, a day usually reserved for social gatherings, brunch dates, and catching up with the crew. But I want you to pause for a second and check in with your gut. When you saw that notification pop up on your phone from that specific friend this morning, what was your immediate physical reaction? Did you smile? Or did your stomach tighten just a little bit? For years, I carried around a friendship that felt like a heavy backpack I couldn’t put down. We had been friends since high school. We knew each other’s parents, our embarrassing prom stories, and our deepest secrets. But every time we hung out in my late twenties, I left feeling exhausted. I felt small. I felt like I had to apologize for my ambition because it made her uncomfortable. I was suffering from the "sunk cost fallacy" of friendship—the idea that because we had invested so much time into the bond, we had to keep investing, even if the...