Some things you have to live to understand

There is so much truth in this.

I have had to live through certain circumstances to really understand why older ones told us to stay clear of certain lifestyles. Circumstances have a way of revealing the lessons.

Your early guardians were right, with each of us, the moment we move past a certain level, we will definitely leave some people behind whether we like it or not.

But as you said, if we are self-made, we will show emphatic and try to carry those folks along. What we wouldn't understand is that it takes a personal level for someone to move forward instead of being stagnant. As it is said, you can only take a horse to the river but cannot force it to drink.

So, they do have to go, even if we badly want to take them with us, if they wanted to go with us, they would have taken conscious steps to improve and move up the ladder. If we still hold unto this, what we get are envious people who were once friends trying to pull us down to their level.