Girls.

The whole concept of friendship is strange. You find a person you like and you spend time together and they just kind of stick around. I wonder if cave people had friends? Did they pick a mate and hang around the neighbouring cave? What did they even talk about? Making fire? Rolling boulders? Humans haven’t really evolved much since then. Now we just talk about making dinner or making babies or making tits of ourselves on a night out. We just do it wearing shoes, with neater hair and makeup. 

The truth is, I love my friends.I love the differences between them. I love how they bring out all the different facets of my personality. I love that depending on my mood I have my go to girls (and boys) for every imaginable drama. Want to be nostalgic and looked after and cared for, K. Want to be silly and obnoxious, R. Want to laugh and cry and have bed picnics, S. Want to lounge around in PJs and eat shit food, T (yes I’m talking about that T again. I know he’s the BF but he’s also the BFF). The list just goes on and on and as I’ve gotten older and I’d like to think wiser, I appreciate them more and more. Not only am I lucky enough to know them, I'm lucky enough that they like me! Granted that I’m funny and kind and an absolute blast... Every single one of them has shared their lives with me and made me a part of their families and I think that’s pretty bloody cool. They have made my days better and my nights pure debauchery (minus the sex, in some cases) and isn’t that what life is all about? Living, laughing and loving the things we do and the people we do it with? Well if I’m wrong, I don’t want to be right cause these people are my world and they make my ‘everydays’ better and brighter and bolder. 

When I started secondary school it didn't quite go to plan. A week or so after starting year 7 me and my family went on holiday to Florida for 3 weeks (stabs me in the heart to think that this was nearly 20 years ago....!). When we came back I had missed the important acts of making friends and finding a 'group' to be a part of but within a few months that changed and friendships started to blossom. I was never a cool kid, but neither were the people I associated with at that time. I was happy to blend into the background and get on as best I could. It wasn't long before I became good friends with F and S. They are twins and they are still a part of my life to this day. We played in the park before school, we shared classes and we had sleepovers. All the things you need from a friendship at that age. When we were 14 they moved away. Different school, different city, different life. I was, needless to say, heartbroken. I didn't go to school for a couple of months after that. Yes the school notified my parents and yes, I got into a LOT of trouble but at the time I didn't care. I was lost without them. They were my best friends inside and outside of school and I had no one else to watch my NSYNC video with. Even worse than that, who would share my love of O-Town?! It was all so melodramatic but at the time it was just horrendous. It felt like the beginning of year 7 all over again. Life carried on and we lost touch, just the occasional message. So many friendships fade this way but luckily it was rekindled in later life. Anyway, I made new friends and these are the ones that would run through to my late teens. By chance, while hanging around in a bus shelter, I bumped into people I knew from inside the school walls but nothing on the outside. Over time this grew and I was a part of their 'group' and I bloody loved it. They filled the hole left but F and S's departure and I actually had a social life - well as much of a social life you can have at 15... sleepovers, all nighters in the sports field and drinking WKD and MD 20/20 in the park on a Friday night. 

There were 2 girls in particular who became my closest friends, K and R. To this day, they are 2 of my greatest loves. I spent more time with K and her family than I did with my own and we shared our love of Dirty Dancing and Footballer's Wives. We have never had a cross world and she remains to this day, the beautiful, loving and fabulously crazy girl I met at 15. Our kitchen parties are perfection - and by parties I mean sitting on the kitchen floor, smoking and drinking and laughing and crying. R is a completely different kettle of fish. There is only one sleepover that comes to mind, after her brother's birthday party where we hid alcohol in the bushes outside and smoked round the corner where no one would see us. She promptly woke us up at 7am and kicked us out so she could go to football practise... What kind of a person does this kind of thing! Me and K retreated to my Mum's house in a hungover, sorry for ourselve's state. Anyway, as it turns out, I had found my lobster! Any ‘Friends’ fan will know that reference. For those of you who don’t, first of all, what planet have you been living on?! Secondly, it’s been repeated everyday since it started! Thirdly, you should be ashamed! Back to the point. To find your lobster means to find your forever love. Your one true love. Your soul mate. I met my soul mate when I was 15 and she remains to this day, the brightest star in my sky and my absolute world. She is the most wonderful human being and the best buddy I could have ever asked for. She is caring and funny and loving and abusive and a down right idiot at times. All the things I look for in a person! Along with the return of F and S, we all joined forces and built the greatest of bonds. Being friends with twins is definitely not easy, and deja vu is an everyday thing when you speak to them separately but they are 2 of the kindest, most generous people I have ever known. Double the trouble and by all accounts, double the fun. And as previously mentioned, F and S came back into my life at the right time and I have to say, our late 20s were epic. At the age of 25 we were all single and working and living within an hour of each other. It was perfect. We had the best and the worst times and after it all? We are still here, still together, and still making poor decisions where life is concerned - but, poor decisions would be nothing without a girl friends to shame you with. Between the 5 of us we have seen births, deaths, marriages, babies and crazy ex-lovers. They complete me in a way that however lonely I may feel, I will never be alone. They are my constant companions and my dearest friends.

When we move into our late teens, we leave school behind and that every-day connection we have. New relationships and jobs change the dynamics and friendships need extra care and commitment to survive. Although I made plenty of friends through work and by mutual acquaintance there is nothing quite like your first loves. Aristotle once said 'Wishing to be friends is quick work but friendship is a slow ripening fruit'. Well I think my friendships have ripened beautifully and I can now say, without a doubt, I have THE best friends I could ever have asked for. We are a force to be reckoned with and I dare anyone to get in our way. We are not perfect, together or individually but its our imperfections that make it work and after 15 years of life, we've picked up quite a few traits. And any true friend will not let you forget those traits, or bad decision, or bad conquests....

Carrie Bradshaw often wrote about the love affair she had with her best friends, and she was right. Through all the boys and girls that come and go, the one constant we can all rely on is the love of our friends. No judgement, no criticism and absolutely no spilling the dirty little secrets we share. We may argue and fight but life would be pretty boring without the dramas.

My final thoughts... Beyonce got it right... Girls run the world. And my girls are definitely better than yours.