Awhile back, I met up with some friends I hadn't seen in ages and I was wondering why X was nowhere to be found. "Where is X?", I ask.

"Oh, I think he feels a little left out when he's with us, cause he is in between jobs and he thinks we've all made it.", my friend tells me. "It's kinda uncomfortable for him."

"WHAT?", I exclaim. "Tell him that is nonsense! I don't even consider myself successful. None of us are going to judge him anyway." 

Then I realized that what X felt was perhaps how I feel around my friends who have married and moved on to have children.