Friends grow at different speeds. Waiting a little is love. Stopping your own growth isn’t.

People change at different rates, and a friendship can absorb a fair amount of that. Slowing down so somebody can catch up is generous and completely normal. What does not hold is shrinking permanently so nobody feels left behind, because then two people are stuck instead of one. Guilt usually does that shrinking, not loyalty.

Notice whether you have been hiding a plan or an ambition to keep the peace with a friend. Tell them the actual thing you want. Most people rise to it, and the ones who cannot were going to find out eventually.