I believe that guys and gals can truly be friends.

100% platonic. Purely snorting laughter, burping after drinking beers and kickin-their-ass at basketball friendship.

Although I’ve met a few naysayers in my days.

Once upon a time, I had a guy tell me that gals and guys can’t be friends.

I didn’t believe him. I laughed at his perspective, and of course I tried to prove him wrong (being the determined kind of woman who I am).

But, in the end, he was right: some guys can’t be friends with gals.

Yet, on the flip side of this whole bittersweet experience I learned that there are some guys who can be trusted as friends—purely friends.

They’ve got a sense of integrity.

Some guys see the importance of having a gal as their friend, knowing that friendship is not meant to be based upon gender, but on a symbiotic connection.

That whole I get what you mean, I’m not gonna judge you, but I will a little bit so you don’t make an ass out of yourself (of course they’ll tell you about it), and a let’s laugh at the world kind of friendship.

So why does it matter that some of my dearest friends happen to be of the opposite sex?

Why should what’s between our legs dictate our ability to be friends?

We are friends because we are friends. It’s that simple.

There’s no complicated equation to process and try to solve. Friends are friends (regardless of what’s between our legs).

I love my guy friends because they know who I am, as well as where I am at in my private life, so they get my journey. And believe it or not, they even listen when I’ve find myself in tricky and uncomfortable spaces.

Maybe the reason friendship with guys works for me is simple: I trust myself.

I honor my integrity. I own my path—even with all the curve balls thrown at me—so I can embrace my friends regardless of what we all have hidden beneath our jeans.

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Author: Jes Wright

Editor: Travis May

Images: Vic Bouchard/Pixoto