QUOTE OF THE WEEK

My.... || Passion, originally uploaded by Kiran Pilly.

"I know better not to be friends with boys with girlfriends."
-Meiko, BOYS WITH GIRLFRIENDS

The age old question... Can girls and guys really just be friends? I have gotten into many a debate about this. My answer is always, of course! It is entirely possible to have a close guy friend who you have never had feelings for who has never had feelings for you beyond the scope of platonic safety.


My oldest friend on the planet is a guy. We have been through a lot together--from being each other's plus ones at homecoming dances, countless trips to the diner in town, all the way to him helping me through my parent's divorce. Summed up, he's like a brother to me. We have watched each other grow up. Our friendship exists in a precious and beautiful simplicity where we can always count on each other.


As I was writing this, I pondered other examples of my successful friendships with the other gender. Surely I had to have dozens of examples of close friends over the years with guys to use as fodder in this posting. Ha. The joke was on me. I was able to think of a handful of guys in my "inner circle of trust" who I have had real friendships with--there's my friend who likes to wear different colored Converse All Stars, my friend who can practically recite the Academy Award winners of each year, my pal who who was the head of our Technology Club all four years of high school, and a few others.


Then, I thought of all of the examples of my friendships with guys that had gone horribly awry. There was Jake*, a former "best friend" who quasi broke my heart by not being my date to the Sadie Hawkins dance and then showed up with another girl (I am so not bitter)... Then, Andy* who changed our friendship by asking me out--we dated for a few months, it ended badly and now we don't speak... I told this guy named Dan* that I liked him and he rejected me in front of a huge crowd by my locker (and then came out of the closet a year later)... There's Josh*, who confessed that he had feelings for me but had a girlfriend at the time, so we stopped hanging out a lot and I missed him terribly. The truth is, I think I liked him too then, but knew I couldn't "go there." However, the thought of dating someone who knows you so well as a guy who was your friend first can make for the best relationships.


So, can guys and girls have a platonic relationship? My answer is still of course, but maybe it is much more rare than I originally thought. What do you think?


*Names have been changed to protect the innocent (or the guilty)