Number 43

Friendship

A friend from high school - my oldest friend - responded to my transition news by saying, in effect, that after her initial surprise, she thought it made a lot of sense. I thought that was a rather provocative statement, so I asked her to clarify it. She described a relationship between two teenagers that didn't have sexual overtones, and upon reflection, was almost 'sisterly'. I mention that my friend is heterosexual only to also remind you that I was masquerading as a heterosexual male at the time (very successfully, I might add - I fooled everyone, including myself for 50 years). The funny thing is, I did, in fact, have a huge crush on her at the time. I guess I hid that well.

But here's the thing. She's right. Even though I pined for her, our relationship did not have sexual overtones. We were both horny teenagers in our own right, but that never clouded our interactions with one another. This is not something I considered way back then, but thinking about it now leads me to the following stunning insight: "huh."

Upon further reflection, though, what I think is that maybe this was my first experience of the closeness and intimacy of a friendship between two women. Whether it's nature or nurture or some of both, there's no question that women experience friendships more keenly than men. It's really interesting (and kinda cool), to think I had that going on way back then.