Through all the madness of college, there have been a few things that have kept me sane in my first year and a half. Funnily enough, it happens that one of these, that would seem to cause the most stress, actually has helped to relieve it: boys. In today's college scene, with its backwards hook-up culture full of mind games, fuckboys, and eventually tears, it is important to see that not all men are neanderthals, and that none of us are truly doomed to live alone with 15 cats. This is where our beloved, wonderful guy friends come in. The guys who don't mind being "just friends", and would never ever even think to utter the dreaded word "friend-zoned". I have learned so much about the creature that society calls "man" in the past year and a half, and I have found that in college especially, there are more benefits in having a solid group of guy friends to laugh and have adventures with late at night than a solid group of phone numbers to hit up when you're feeling lonely.

In December of my freshman year, I joined a sorority and started "seeing" this guy in one of the frats we mixed with. Things went great for a while, but almost a year later, I found myself still with the guy who "didn't want to put a label on us", was embarrassed to have me around his friends (who were also my friends), who would rather black out and come over at 4 am than hang out and grab dinner during the week. You could say the first few weeks of the semester were pretty rough. I was sad all the time, I never wanted to do anything, and above all, I kept wondering why someone I cared about so much suddenly had no time for me and was ready to brush me off like he barely knew me. All my girl friends kept telling me things like, "He's an asshole", "He doesn't treat you right", "You deserve better", and I'd like to thank them sincerely for putting up with me while I was in such a negative state, but it was truly when I saw my guy friends get legitimately angry because of the way this boy treated me that I finally was able to look at the situation with clearer eyes. It genuinely mattered to these people if I woke up with a smile on my face instead of puffy eyes from crying all night. It mattered to these people that I recognized my worth. I finally saw that these are the people I mattered to, and that I shouldn't let people who don't treat me the way I deserve even affect my mood for a second. I realized soon after I cut things off with this guy that the times I was happy, laughing, and comfortable were with the people that I was able to be myself around, who I didn't have to feel like I had to impress for them to accept me. I wrote this article to thank every single one of them, and every single guy out there who has a girl friend that they care about in this way. This semester ended up being a great one because of you people.

So, here's to the boys who genuinely care about our happiness. Who will spend hours convincing us that we deserve so much better than that asshole, and sincerely mean it. Who will tell us corny jokes just to see us smile. Who we can count on to be our emergency formal date, because we all know they would be more fun than a random guy, anyway. Here's to the boys who use us as an excuse to drink unacceptable amounts of pink wine without being called girly. Us girls appreciate you more than you will ever know.