My best friend is a girl. There I said it. I can understand people’s confusion. After all, social norms of high school dictate that guys hang with guys and girls hang with girls. So, let’s put it right out on the table: what comes to any high schooler’s mind when he sees a guy and a girl spending extended periods of time together? Are they dating? Are they brother and sister? Maybe they both have no other friends? Pause. We all know that these judgments exist. I’m here to say that guys and girls can remain completely platonic. No, it’s not a dimension of the “friend zone,” it’s powerful, human friendship. That’s what I have with my friend, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Don’t make an attribution error; any two people can be friends, and nothing more, regardless of their gender.

We met in freshman advisory. On the first day of class, terrified and confused, I made an awkward comment and the room fell quiet. The silence was broken by her laugh. I looked up and saw her smiling at me. STOP. This is not a love story; see, you are conditioned to think it is because of the way I’m recounting the story. That’s exactly part of the problem; we assume more than we know. Anyways, the bond was instantaneous, and we found that we shared similar interests and opinions, just like any other friends. She laughed at my corny jokes, I shared her frustration with freshman physics, and we belittled our senior advisors together. We quickly became close, spending our free periods together, eating lunch and riding the same bus home. On the weekends, we would make our parents or older siblings drive us places to get food. She is truly one of a kind, and I’m confident I have made a friend for life.

I realized that she was a girl . . . but I was blind to that. Was I really going to let her gender interrupt the connection that we had formed, one that I had quickly come to cherish? Thank God I didn’t. Because if I had made the error that so many teenagers make, I would have lost my best friend in the entire world. Part of the appeal was that she was so down to earth. She took the time to get to know me and understand me. She knew what annoyed me, how to make me laugh and what my awkward quirks were. Listen up gentleman: not all girls want a relationship, and they are certainly not all the same. Girls are multifaceted, which may sound pretty obvious, but it’s clearly not obvious enough. Still, people assume what society has taught them to assume. Are you guys dating? You would make a good couple. Are you going to homecoming together?

Maybe it’s just the high school mentality, because a study in Psychology Today reveals that adults are accepting of platonic relationships. Out of 1,450 members of Match.com surveyed, 83 percent believe that men and women can simply coexists as friends. There are examples all around us — think Chandler and Phoebe from Friends. Still, I’m willing to accept the notion that there are many friends who end up becoming romantically involved. In fact, I would say that it’s probably pretty common. The same study also revealed that 62 percent of members have been in a relationship that evolved from a friendship. Kind of like Jim and Pam from The Office. However, what I am trying to convey is that there are different kinds of friendship. I believe that some are destined to become more, and some are not. We have trouble remembering the latter.

Perhaps the media is to blame. Think of all of the duos of romantically involved friends who have graced our television screens in the past years. Donna and Eric from That 70’s Show, Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World, Leslie and Ben from Parks and Recreation — the list goes on and on. Viewers are left with a skewed perception of friendship. The reality is that friendships and experiences like the one my friend and I have are valid. April Bleske-Rechek, a professor of Evolutionary Psychology at UW-Eau Claire states it clearly: “I think men and women do want to be friends, and they do want to engage in platonic friendships.”

Carry this lesson into adulthood. Friends exists in all shapes and sizes. Small groups or large groups, boys or girls — whatever works for you. Not once have my friend and I crossed the line from friendship to dating, and that’s completely alright with me. She’s the best person I have come to know in my three and a half years here. She has helped me survive high school. Yes, she’s a girl, and no, there’s nothing more to it.

Everyone is guilty of making assumptions. They make us human. But it’s never too late to change. Erase all judgement; see people as human and not as functions of our social expectations. We all want friends, and everyone is just trying to find someone compatible, even if that person is of the opposite sex.