Groups > Career Change Workshop

Some of our so-called friends peeled off years ago. Neither my wife nor I were able to talk about careers with them without jealousy on their part. When you are with friends, what do you talk about? Careers and children. When both my wife and I got published in 1989 - 90, that was the end of one set of friends who were in the same professions as us and they didn't get accepted by publishers even though they tried. We made new friends as the kids were growing but when our granddaughter became a rock performer, that bunch fell off too, even though we had nothing to do with it and we tried not to talk too much about her's and our son's accomplishments as professional musicians. People! It seems some of them do envy success. Though it doesn't go to our heads - we could all lose it in a moment - our lifestyles express it. For instance, how the heck can you go to the Conan O'Brien show in NYC and not mention that your son and granddaughter are the performers on the show that night? Or when they get headlines in the weekend section of you local newspaper, not admit that, yes, we are related to those folk when you have an unusual name and are the only family that spell it that way on the planet. I am not trying to tell you that heavy is the burden of success. I guess what I am saying is that friends who are not really close may choose to jump ship when they are not the stars of the production. For instance, the "jumpers" live in a far larger houses and drive far more expensive cars than we choose to. They always bragged about that and we never blinked. But, when we accomplished something that you can't do by going into debt, they jumped ship. Our real friends have been there for us since we were all young. They take as much pride in our accomplishments as we do in theirs. They will never abandon ship because of jealousy. They have the same beliefs we do: If you can do it, more power to you! They went out of their way to see our kids perform, not to impress us but because they wanted to poke fun at my son who they have known for 39 of his 39 years. They babysat him when he was a pookie and now, he gives them none of the credit for his success! Whadda life! Don'tcha love it?