Yesterday I've had to break it off with three of my best friends I've known since school. We are all about 30 years old.

Exactly 10 years ago, at 19 I left the home country to study abroad, and stayed there until this day. Without going into details it's been a proper rollercoaster but I've managed to graduate twice and am working in the industry I really love. Also about 3 years ago I found TRP which guided me towards bettering myself from multiple dimensions.

This year was especially important as I've finally found a well-paying job, recently had a good earn out from shares. I make 2x as much as the next best earning friend of mine. I have no debts, be it money or a female. I've also been working out for 7 years and feel in a great shape. Moreover, I started renting from a fairly rich guy who became a sort of a mentor for me. He tells me how to approach different life situations, how to dress to impress. I've grown out hair, changed a lot of my clothes, planning to get a nice looking car. I feel extremely motivated and I know that in the next 10 years this will all advance way further than I can even imagine now. I have hobbies that I want to make into a business. I know what I want. And I feel like I'm just starting in my path.

My friends on the other hand have progressed ever so slightly. One is really smart but he's a loner and rarely gets involved with anything. Another is now married with a wife 8 years senior who despises him. He is currently paying her mortgage without his own share. Only thing keeping them together is their young son. Finally my best friend works at docks painting barges. He's one you'd consider an alpha of the pack previously because he always wants his opinion everywhere. He's debt-ridden and often doesn't have any money. At his place he hosts a 35 year old single mom with 3 kids from different dads. They've been together for a few years now and she doesn't give a shit about him, just keeps him around for convenience. Yet he thinks he knows everything in this world and always pushes his opinion on everything, and hopes she changes.

We've been keeping in touch over the years and we would always get together when I came back. But in the past few years it started changing. We've always teased each other but recently I have become the main object for teasing. They'll say that my boots or jacket are too expensive. That I wear too many branded clothes. That my lifestyle is same as any other piece of shit immigrant (it's not). That the uni I went to was a complete waste of time (it wasn't, and they didn't go to one). That my new iPhone is useless expensive crap. But as lately I started making way more money, there are endless jokes about that too. Just to be clear I don't really flaunt any of that. I do share my successes but compared to some other people I try to keep everything under the radar. It's just that looking at me you can clearly see the difference between all of us. I hang out with hot chicks ranging from 18 to 26 years old and ignore single moms.

Yesterday they suggested we get together in a basement of one of our multi-storey houses to get drunk and watch movies. To be clear it's not your typical UK basement, it's a proper shithole which used to host a pawnshop. It's cold there and hard to breathe so I said I'm not going there again. Then I was called a king who doesn't want to get involved with peasants, while I just said I'm not 13 anymore to do shit like this. This triggered an argument and words have been said so I left the group chat.

At this point I don't know if it's salvageable at all. I want to have my friends back but I feel we've been on different paths for far too long that our ways don't cross anymore. They've mostly reached their peak or burdened themselves with responsibilities they won't shake off, so this is where it ends for them. They will live for a while, but I know their parents and I know exactly what they will become. They'll be getting drunk like mad until their health deteriorates and kills them at 50 or 60.

I just don't know if I can ever replace them. I've always been proud of keeping the friendship over many years and such long distance. But I'm tired of hearing all the same criticisms from the people who haven't progressed at all in years, who conform with their employers and their women. They say they are happy for my success but I can mostly see jealousy and closed-mindness.