The term “third wheel” has always been portrayed as a bad thing in our society due to the horror stories we hear from other people or even the examples we see displayed in movies and on TV shows. But not all third wheels we see in real life or on the screen are always bad ones.

For example, the iconic golden trio from Harry Potter or even Miley, Lilly, and Oliver from "Hannah Montana," and one of my favorites--Fiona, Shrek, and Donkey from "Shrek." If we’re being honest, Donkey might have actually coined the term “third wheel” for playing his annoying, yet iconic role in the movies.

These three examples just show that being the third wheel shouldn’t be detrimental to a friendship but rather be a positive, beneficial growth of it, and should be more fun than awkward to be the third wheel.

Just about my whole life I've been the single friend.

With the exception of 2 casual dates, 3 prom outings, and being stood up at my 5th-grade dance, I’ve been completely boyfriend-less for the last 18 years of my life. There have been periods of my life where my friends have all been single, and I have had their undivided attention.

Then, there have been others times, that I like to refer to as the dark days, where all of my very close friends have all been caught up in the climax of their romantic relationships and I have to fend for myself by clinging like a bottom feeder to other friends outside of my “ingroup” to avoid being sucked into the vast nothingness of social isolation and sadness.

Life doesn’t stop for anybody, and you can’t just expect your best friends to put a hold on their romantic lives to take care of you and throw away their chances at happiness. Eventually, you must finally give in and succumb to the scary and unpromising land of being the “third wheel” if you ever want to be able to have a consistent and healthy relationship with your best friends.

Throughout my experiences of delving into the land of a “third-wheel-ness,” I’ve come to the conclusion that being the third wheel should never be a bad thing. If you look at a tricycle, that third wheel is absolutely fundamental to the success and balance of the whole machine overall. For all those third wheels out there--keep doing you, because you are important and you aren’t weird for wanting to be single and still keep relationships with your friends.

My friends are a very important part of my life, for they’re the ones who encourage me to do all the things I do, whether those things turn out to be successes or failures. Therefore, I’d never in a million years want to lose wonderful people like them no matter the many changes that life brings forth to all of us.

My friends are the ones who consistently laugh at my jokes no matter how bad they are, and I truly trust their judgments, especially when it comes to dating. A true friend will want to include you rather than leave you out and would never want to put you in a position where you feel uncomfortable. That’s why I think I’ve had such an awesome time being the third wheel because my friends will always have my best interest in mind.

Throughout my experiences of third-wheeling, I’ve come to the conclusion that there are three different types of couples I have “third-wheeled” with, all of which have brought the same amount of joy and happiness to my life.

The first kind of third-wheeling is the pre-established friend couple. This kind of third wheeling is when the couple you are the third wheel for were both already your friends beforehand. I experienced this with my friend Erin for the past couple of years when she and someone from our friend group started dating. Through third wheeling with them to the movies and various restaurants in the past couple of years, I’ve learned so much more than I ever would’ve about not only one of my best friends, Erin but also about her boyfriend Bret, who I barely would’ve spoken to if they hadn’t started dating. The experience of third wheeling brought us so much closer, rather than tearing us apart.

One of my other best friends never really dated or had the desire to date so I knew that when she found someone she wanted to be in a relationship with, they were bound to be extremely cool and would naturally blend in with our group. This is the third wheeling that I like to call the new friend couple. When she first asked me to come and hang out with her and her significant other, I was hesitant due to the fact that I didn’t really know this person very well, and our other mutual friend who would usually hang out with us to make things less awkward, couldn’t come.

It had been so easy for me to third wheel with my other friends because I was usually already friends with their boyfriends or girlfriends before they started dating, so this was a new concept to me. But as I started to hang out with just the 2 of them more and more, I had some of the best times and felt right at home. Through this third wheeling, I got to maintain a relationship with one of my best friends, while making a new friend along the way.

The most recent experience I’ve had with third wheeling was here at college. The first couple of weeks of freshman year were really rough for me, and I was having trouble putting myself out there and making new friends. Just when I thought I should give up all hope, a really strange circumstance brought me and a couple of people from my floor together, and we ended up exchanging genuine laughter with each other about the events that happened that night.

Two of the people in this group of friends were most obviously a couple, but to my surprise, that didn’t stop them from including me and inviting me places when they both went out somewhere. I consider this type of third-wheeling the "before and after" couple because they were dating way before I met them, but they still wanted to include me in their group after I met them. They said they had friends third wheel with them before, but none of them wanted to because they thought it would be awkward. I’m glad I’m the friend that finally stuck as the third wheel because they have brought me so much laughter and happiness in the short amount of time I’ve been hanging out with them. I feel so fortunate to have made two built-in friends.

I promised myself a long time ago that I would never go on some forced double date with your average Joe to feel more comfortable about my relationship status.

I always want to be unapologetically myself no matter who I’m with, and I love the humor I bring to my friends’ lives, even when those friends happen to be in a relationship with each other. As a third wheel advocate, my parting words are, “if you think being the third wheel is a horrible thing and you’d rather just avoid it at all costs, then you probably aren’t third wheeling with the right people.”