The friends who stayed in your hometown aren’t behind you. They’re on a different road. Keep their numbers.

Distance invites a ranking that does not actually exist. Leaving is a decision about direction, not a measure of ambition, and the people who stayed are often carrying responsibilities you were free to walk away from. Reading their life as a slower version of your own will cost you the friendship and teach you nothing true.

Stay in touch in a way that does not require them to keep up. Ask about their actual week rather than reporting on yours. These are the people who knew you before anything, and that gets worth more with time.