New friends are a gift. They meet the you you’re becoming without the reruns.

People who have known you forever carry your history, which is a real gift and occasionally a weight. They remember the version of you from three years ago and sometimes keep handing it back, so changing around them costs more effort than it should. Somebody new meets only the person actually standing there. That is not disloyalty to anyone, it is a different and useful mirror.

Make one new friend this season, on purpose. Talk properly to the person at work or in class you have never spoken to. You get to introduce the current version, which is a rare opportunity.