I've had tons of great friendships throughout my life, from girls I danced with, to girls at work, and girls I'd known since grade school. While I love my girl friends dearly, one thing I never seemed to have in my life were friends that were guys.
To be honest, it never bothered me much. I talked to guys I knew from school or through friends, but I never had a close friendship with a boy. It wasn't something I felt was missing, and I never had much interest in finding a guy best friend.
That is, until I came to college.
Once I had settled into college and established new friendships, it became pretty apparent to me that something was missing. While I had made friends with a lot of the girls in my classes, clubs, and dorm, I didn't have any friends that were guys.
Whereas in high school I had never missed their presence, it suddenly seemed to be a glaring gap in my social group. It wasn't until my first weekend back home that I figured out what made college so different.
I grew up with two younger brothers, only two and three years younger than me. As kids we were always close, and despite having the worst, most dramatic arguments you could imagine, at the end of the day we were best friends. I had more inside jokes with my brothers than I did with my girl friends, and as we got older, I turned to them for advice or support just as much as I did with any best friend.
Before leaving for college, I definitely took them for granted. Having someone to come home to everyday who you could be yourself with 100% was something I just grew up with. I didn't need any guy friends - I had the two best ones I could possibly ask for living in the same house.
When I wasn't living with my brothers anymore, I started to miss all the little things about them that I had grown used to. Stealing their big sweatshirts (because I'm the oldest, but I'm also going to end up the shortest), bothering them about their crushes, late night ice cream runs, and laughing for hours on end at stupid jokes.
I could do those things with any of my college friends, but there's something different about hanging out with guys and girls. Maybe it's just because they're my brothers, but with guys I feel a lot more laid back, a little goofier, and less guarded.
Now that I'm not seeing my brothers every day, there's something noticeably lacking from my life. Every time I visit home I want to take them back to school with me. I could, and probably will, start more friendships with guys in college, but I know that none of those will even come close to my friendship with my brothers.
You guys suck sometimes, and you annoy the hell out of me, but I never have more fun than when I'm with you two and I wouldn't trade you for the world.