Every girl will go through many different kinds of friends throughout their lives– the drama makers, the party friends, the secret keepers, the girls who are basically you in another body. The list goes on and on. And while every kind of friend is equally valuable, I am a firm believer that every girl could benefit from something I like to call the “other half” –and no, I don’t mean a significant other.
The other half is a friend who, when it comes right down to it, is nothing like you. You have different interests, different values and different lifestyles altogether. This may sound like the recipe for disaster, but the truth is, when it works, it really works. You two are the embodiment of the phrase “two sides of the same coin.”
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I met my other half twenty years ago, and we probably wouldn’t have become so close if our parents hadn’t forced us into it. Now our friendship is so natural that I hardly think twice about it, but I always get the same question: “How are you two so close when you’re so different?”
The truth is, you don’t have to have a ton of similarities to work together brilliantly. Sometimes, you work better when you don’t. If you don’t believe me, here are seven reasons why every girl should have an other half.
1. You’ve got all the school subjects covered. Maybe you’re good at English and she’s good at math. You write her essays when she’s stayed up all night stressing over writer’s block and proofread all her emails before she sends them. She gives you all the right answers on your Calc homework and helps you calculate how much you owe for utilities (even though you’re a little suspicious about whether or not she’s secretly slipping in a few extra bucks for herself). You both insist that you’re the smarter one, but truth be told, you’d be screwed without the other.
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2. You’ve got the perfect balance of emotion and logic. Maybe you’re the crier of the group, but you’ve got a lot more to offer than tears and endless drama. You’re the empathetic friend who cares about all of your friends, to the point where you might get a little too involved in their well-being. Or maybe you’re the girl who your friends joke is the cold-hearted robot of the group, the one who never sheds a tear in public but can tell it how it is. You dish out the truth and tell others what they need to hear, even if they don’t always want to hear it. These may sound like two extremes, but they balance out nicely– you’ve always got the shoulder to cry on and the one to tell you to pick yourself up off the floor and move on. Besides, playing good cop/bad cop has never been so fun.
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3. You don’t have to worry about competing. If you’re different enough, you don’t really have to worry about the drama that can come when you secretly compare yourself to your friends. You’ve got different fashion styles and different hobbies. You aren’t taking any of the same classes. You probably don’t have any of the same guys on your radar, either– not that you’d ever let some lowly boy get between you two. Even if you wanted to compete, there’s not much you’re evenly matched in. You do you and she does her, and you cheer each other on every step of the way.
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4. You get new perspectives on almost every subject. Being so different can lead to having very different viewpoints in life, whether that’s politically, morally or socially. And while I always hear that it’s easiest to be around people who share these same viewpoints, you really don’t learn much from people who only reiterate the same ideas that you already have. I may not agree with every (or any) idea my BFF has, but I can’t say that I don’t need the reminder that even though my values may seem pretty dang superior, not everyone is going to agree. Sometimes you need people to challenge you so you can shape your opinions and consider new perspectives that you never would have thought about otherwise.
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5. You teach each other many valuable things. My other half keeps me up on all the drama on “The Real Housewives” and helps me color coordinate my outfits. I keep her updated on all of the Beyoncé drama and teach her random Italian sayings she’ll probably never use. I tell her about what I read on CNN and she shows me all the good Cosmo articles. Don’t try to tell me my life would be the same without her.
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6. Separately, you’re pretty awesome, but together, you could rule the world. You’ve basically got every personality trait covered in their somewhere. You probably find that you’re better in social situations when you’re together, because you can talk to any kind of person and one of you will probably connect with them. You don’t need each other, per se, but you definitely cover a lot more ground when you have each other around. You’d probably be the best president/vice president team the world has ever seen. In fact, you know you would be; you’re just waiting for the right time to strike.
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7. Basically, you’re a two-woman wolf pack. Because yeah, you can deal with having others around, but what’s the point? You have her back and she has yours. You’ve basically got everything covered.
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