I recently read an article from Clemson creator Maddie Rogers about how "Boy Friends Are Just As Important As Boyfriends," meaning that having a guy friend is just as important (if not more important) than having a romantic male partner. I think the same is true for guys on the other side.
Oh yeah, girlfriends are nice because they are always going out of their ways to be extra sweet to us, even when we don't deserve it. They remember all of the important things so we don't have to. They put up with our obnoxious habits when nobody else will, and that's how you truly know they love you. Perhaps most importantly, they pierce through the emotionless rocks that we once were and make us feel things we've never felt before.
Not to take away from girlfriends, because all of these things are nice, but girl friends do a lot of this and more.
Girl friends teach us about the hundreds of personalities a girl can have. Where a girlfriend might try to hide her bad sides to please you, a girl friend is going to go batshit crazy on you if she feels like it, or not. There is no sugarcoating a girl friend — you get her for what she is. She can be your cup of tea or your shot of whiskey.
Girl friends help us work on ourselves as men. Girl friends won't castrate you at a bar because you forgot to shave or just threw a shirt and hat on to go out-- odds are, your girl friend will help you embrace confidence no matter how you look. They might put up with more of your negative aspects, but they will still hold you to a standard and keep you in line when necessary.
Perhaps most importantly, your girl friend can be a go-to for things you can't talk to guys about but are embarrassed to talk to your girlfriend about. Emotions suck, and everyone has to deal with them differently — girl friends help a lot of guys out here get through it. These are the girls who can be like a big sister to you. But if a guy ever f***ed her over, you'd turn from boy friend to big brother REAL quick.
Girl friends can teach you more about girls in 10 minutes than your dad did your entire life. They help us see how girls REALLY think, where a girlfriend might disguise this. Girl friends help us men, as the dumber, more inferior gender, get things right before we attempt this "love" thing.
To quote Maddie from her article (because I absolutely loved this),
"(Girl)friends are great and are there for so much, but, without our (girl) friends, it's safe to say, we probably wouldn't have our (girl)friends."
Snaps to all the girl friends out there. To the ones who will put down a six-pack, go get pizza at 2 a.m., and give us the secrets to making our future girlfriends a little less mad at us every day.