When Your Friends Become "Too Good" For You....

Chris Peterson

• OnStage Editor-in-Chief
• @onstagebliog

Imagine this: You and your friend start out in the theatre industry. You've worked together, struggled together, supported each other when no one else would. 

Then, your friend lands the breakthrough role of a lifetime, and suddenly they ditch you for a more successful, high stature friendship circle. Your friend has become "too good" for you. 

And what makes this incredibly painful is that, more than not, you've done nothing wrong. It's just that they feel they would look better hanging out with these other people than you, the person who was by their side from the beginning. 

Equally painful is that these people are usually pretty special to you. If you go by my "Napoleon Ice Cream Theory", they're usually in the "Strawberry" category, which makes it really hurt. 

This happened to me a couple of times. You think you're best friends with someone and then they find just a little bit of success and you're left in the dust. 

But I've also seen the opposite. Take the Tonys that past weekend for instance. On the press line, I overheard a question and answer to a certain nominee, who talked about the importance of her high school friends and even brought one with her to the show. Why? 

"Because they were with me in the beginning."

People like this, are awesome because they get it. And people who don't? Well let's just say that down the line, when they're not riding as high as they are right now, the bandwagon friends will fall off and they're going to wish they still had you.