Today I went through old videos of my trips with my close friends and I realized just how short life is. I also realized that I might not have been as appreciative of my friends as I could have been. All my close friends are empathetic alpha dudes who stuck by me despite my times of heavy insecurity, my depression and weight gain and a bunch of other bullshit before I decided to better myself. Somehow, by coincidence after watching the videos, I remembered that it was recently one of my closest friends birthdays & that another close friend mentioned in a convo that his last exam before the break was today. I wrote the first thing that came to mind to both without any hesitation from a place of genuine empathy.

So I randomly texted the first close friend:

"Last exam day today

Good luck motherfucker"

Then I texted the other friend whose birthday just passed:

"a few days late, but happy birthday bro

22, you're getting pretty old bro

might need a cane soon"

Pretty normal texts and I'm probably overthinking it, but doing this got me thinking. Where is the line between being empathetic and considerate towards a friend/LTR/plate, and clingy/needy/beta behaviour? When do you know the difference?