The internet is often a-buzz with chatter about "the friend zone." I've seen countless memes, tweets, and Facebook statuses that have sent me into convulsions of laughter and even more that have caused me to instantly do a face palm. As a girl with a slightly antisocial personality and a lot of male friends, when I first heard of the concept I thought it was absurd. Interactions between people, especially across genders gets so tricky after we hit puberty--everything gets complicated.
Honestly, I find most of my close guy friends attractive--some of them I'd even have to admit having had a crush on at some point during the friendship. In fact, I can say for certain that I only became friends with one of them because I was interested in him. This happened, that happened, I was always busy, he was always busy, and now we're good friends. The blame could fall on me, it could also fall on him, but at the end of the day it is what is. Neither of us stepped out of our comfort zone to "make a move" so nothing ever happened. That in a nutshell summed up by opinion of the friend zone. Two people that obviously get along and have some chemistry, but are either afraid to admit their feelings or scared to ruin the friendship they already have.
And then the strangest thing happened.
I noticed one of my guy friends for the first time and I thought I was guilty of friend zoning him. Then I thought that he friend zoned me. But even crazier, thanks to my computer's inability to forget anything, I realized that he and I have been close friends for longer than I thought. I mean, I knew I'd known him for a long time, but I didn't realize we talked so much. How did I not know that we were close friends before? That's not even friend-zoning anymore... I've never taken a psychology class so I won't begin to guess how the human mind operates. It seems like a strange war between "ignorance is bliss" and "over-thinking kills happiness." Bottom line, we've said we were friends for I don't know how long and now I think the title really just means "we aren't dating and we aren't strangers;" it isn't meant to give any deeper insight.
I'm still not sure I believe in the friend zone, I think everything just has its time and place. Sometimes you have feelings that are strong enough to risk a friendship, sometimes you have feelings that create a friendship, and sometimes you have a friendship too strong to risk your feelings--and sometimes you have neither. I'd just like to take the moment to remind you that the important thing is that you have a friendship at all.
