Some bridges charge a toll. Some relationships do too. Know what you’re paying to cross.

Access to certain people comes with a fee attached. You get the group, the invitations and the standing, and the charge is agreeing with things you do not agree with, absorbing the jokes, keeping quiet about what you actually think. A toll is not automatically a reason to turn back. The trouble is paying one for years without noticing you were.

Pick a relationship and name the price in one sentence: what you give up to keep it. Then decide, with that said out loud, whether the crossing is worth it. Some will be, and one or two will not survive being priced.