Friends are extremely important, perhaps one of the most important things. The saying does go that family and friends matter the most, right? There are childhood friends you have lost and ones who are still your best friends. There are friends you make in high school or through sports or through weird family-friend parties. No matter what, these people shape who you are and make life amazing.

There is a difference between girlfriends and guy friends, however, and everyone knows it. When two girls become best friends, it is an incredibly strong bond that will last for a very long time, but it can also fade. At some point, you realize you haven’t talked to that friend in forever, and when you happen to run into each other, you don’t even know what to say anymore.

Guys, however, are the best friends a girl can have. As long as the relationship is strictly platonic (which is difficult to find, I’ll admit), a guy can be so incredibly helpful and supportive to a girl who he is friends with. There are arguments that the two sexes can never just be friends, but I would beg to differ with that theory.

I have amazing friends who are guys and have given me amazing advice and allowed me to be girly with them, but who also treat me as an equal. If you haven't seen a guy friend in a while, they will greet you with a hug and it will be as if nothing has changed.

Girls, there are times when you are hanging out with a group of guys, and they will bring up a topic or make a comment that the guys laugh about that you don’t understand, or they will refuse to go into details because it isn’t ‘appropriate’ for a girl to hear. Your real guy friends, though, will always clue you in and treat you like one of them. You tell dirty jokes to each other or share gross stories because you are friends, no matter your gender.

There is also almost no drama when you hang out with a guy friend. You haven’t talked to him in a week? Whatever, he’s down to catch up and hang out. You have a problem with one of your girlfriends?

You can tell him everything and he won’t gossip about it, so she won’t know what you said. You want to go to the gym? He’ll totally tag along and won’t make you feel self-conscious about your sweaty face. Having guy troubles? He will be supportive and honest, and will actually know what he’s talking about because he is a guy!

My girlfriends are definitely my best friends because we have gone through so much together, but guy friends are so essential to my life. I love hanging out with them. They speak their minds and are completely honest, which is oftentimes hard to find with girlfriends. They are protective as hell, which makes me feel like I have multiple big brothers who will always be there for me. As boyfriends and lovers, guys become 100 percent more complicated, but as friends, they are the best people in the world.