Outgrowing people feels like betrayal at first. It’s actually just your shoes not fitting anymore.

Drifting from someone you were once close to carries a guilt that does not match the facts. Nobody did anything wrong, you simply developed in a direction with less overlap with theirs, and the sadness of that is real without there being fault in it. Changing is not a wrong done to the people who knew the earlier version.

Let the relationship find its own new size rather than forcing it back or ending it. Keep the affection and lower the frequency if that is what fits. Some friendships belong to one stretch of your life, and that is not a failure.