I think I’d be in prison now if it wasn’t for my female friends. So many crimes nipped in the bud by a quick, ‘Do you really want to go through with that?’
Seriously though, sometimes when all you want to do is vent, rage, not have to explain a source of pain or be fixed by a sodding solution – that’s where friends come in. They listen and let the storm pass if that’s what you need. They also know where the bodies are buried because they helped you drag them there…
When inevitable disaster strikes, I have always found friends rally like medics in A&E. Since my early twenties, I have been rescued countless times when my own nemesis – heartbreak – has snapped me in half. As I’ve navigated the stages of grief for the crumbled relationship, a rotating door of female friends have picked me up, hugged me while I cry, carried me home from the club or force-fed me chips when my stomach has insisted on nil-by-mouth.
They arrive unbidden as if guided by a lodestar, armed with whatever is required (wine, chocolate, self-help books, Rescue Remedy, more wine, voodoo dolls, a punching bag) – they are the Florence Nightingales of friendship. You are equally bound by love and an inbuilt desire to offer the same when the tables are turned, which they will be, because of the mad merry-go-round that is Life.
I count myself lucky to have a plethora of honourable, trustworthy and loving female friends to call upon in times of trouble, but also times of triumph. Because life shouldn’t always be about firefighting, there’s just cause for celebration too. Whenever I have achieved something significant, some of the first people I tell are my friends because I know they will be happy for me, as I for them.
There’s nothing better than basking in the glory of a friend’s well-deserved achievement, and watch them have their moment in the sun. Life, with all its disco balls and circus tents, would be an empty place if it wasn’t for our female cheerleaders instilling us with the courage to take a leap of faith, to apply for that job, move to Japan, go on that date – they hold a mirror up and remind us, you’re fabulous, sister, you got this!