A friend’s progress does not require an immediate explanation of your own pace.

Someone else’s news arrives and a reflex starts drafting your position: why you are not there yet, what your circumstances have been, what is supposedly coming. Nobody asked for any of it. The account gets written for an audience that is not listening for it, and it turns their moment into your defense.

When a friend tells you something good this week, ask a second question about it before you say anything about yourself. Your pace is not on trial, and it does not need a statement.