I've gotten myself into relationships, almost-relationships, flings and everything else in between. Whenever I make the mistake of catching feelings, I think to myself, "Well, this could end one of two ways. We could break up and stop seeing each other, maybe pretend the other person never existed. Or, we could end up in love and married (and even that could end)." While neither of those thoughts are comforting to me, it made me realize that I have never had these thoughts about my best friends. I have never gone into a friendship thinking, "Well, cool, I really love spending time with this person, but maybe it won't work out."

Odds are, you will not keep every single friend in your life forever, but the important ones, your person or people rather, matter. Does that mean we don't need to be a couple or in a relationship or any other box society asks us to label our love for other human beings as? No, Not at all. Love is what makes the world a little less scary, and we certainly cannot and should not want to get rid of that. But maybe we should love more freely. Maybe we shouldn't be afraid to call or text after a date because we fear looking needy. Maybe we should be straight forward with our feelings and stop lying to our friends and ourselves when we say we don't care for someone all that much because we fear the rejection.

It's that fear that makes us say, "You know we talk all the time but I'm sure I'm just making it up in my head that this person might have feelings for me." When you met your best friend, did you think they actually wanted nothing to do with you and only talked to you because they had nothing else to do? Probably not.

Life is too short to not tell someone that they make you smile and feel safe. And those romantic relationships should feel a little like kindergarten where you could go up to someone and say, "Hey, would you like to be my best friend?" I'm not saying you should ask someone to be in an exclusive relationship with you seconds after meeting them, but I am saying maybe the rules shouldn't matter so much. Take a chance on love, and take the chance that in addition to becoming your significant other, this person could also become your best friend.

Best friends are the reason any of us can get through the day. Find someone who loves you as much as your "person" does, and your skies will no longer be gray.