The Utter Romance of Platonic Friendships
Surely everybody can relate to feeling lonely, especially in a world where we are most often confined to our homes, yearning for palpable connection without fear of spreading germs.
February is especially poignant for those without a significant other, as Valentine’s Day is a day filled with Instagram posts of couples, aisles bursting with pink hearts and red balloons, and boxes of chocolate on a 2 for $5 sale (which you should now mask up and take advantage of if you can, by the way). Throughout all this, I have found that the truest of true, the most giving, kind, silly, loving, empathetic, funny and honest relationships are those formed between myself and my best friends.
If the relationship between you and your best friend isn’t romantic, then I honestly don’t know what is. How many people in your life do you have a million photos with, have their coffee order down pat and who spring into your mind when you pass their favorite fast-food restaurant (if Burger King is considered a restaurant)?
While I am a romantic through and through, this year back in my childhood bedroom, searching for jobs and trying to figure out how to write less-morbid poetry about a global pandemic, has given me the chance to go through all of my romantic partners and semi-romantic-not-sure-what-we-are partners. You must be lying if you try to tell me you haven’t done the same, whether you are taken or not. And through all of this thinking, I have realized that despite being single, I have found my soulmates in my best friends.
My romantic love life has been a bit rocky, just as pretty much everyone else’s has, and my heart has been pummeled more than once. When I most recently got my heart broken, the first person to come over and hug me and let me cry with her was my best friend. She brought me my favorites, passionfruit La Croix, mac and cheese, and herself. And I didn’t even ask her to come; I called her and she showed up not fifteen minutes later. Another one of my best friends let me lay on her couch for days complaining and crying and making ice cream sundaes, and that is what I consider true love.
The idea of love for me, has moved beyond simply two people in a romantic relationship—it has grown into me being inspired by my friends and feeling the support system, the passion, the inspiration they give me daily just by being the selfless and immensely loving people they are. I truly can’t believe how lucky I got.
Every time I am in a play, my best friends are there. I post a YouTube video, they watch it. I write something, I get texts asking me to read it and through each and every one of these things, they don’t even realize how special and validated this really makes me feel. Even if I post a dumb finsta, my friends will tell me how funny they thought it was, which is obviously the most valuable of any praise. They would do anything for me without me even having to ask, and I feel the exact same way.
This year I even put pen to paper and sent literal Valentine’s to some of my best friends, heart-shaped and covered in stickers, because I wanted to tell them I loved them again. In the shape of a heart.
Next time you are going through a break-up, are feeling down about being single, or just need a little confidence boost, call your best friend. Send her a note, throw candy at her, yell her name from the rooftops and hope that she hears you!! What I mean to say is, appreciate her, and appreciate the unadulterated love you share.
–Claire Beaver, Content Creator
