Do you think you’re cooler in life because you have a brother? You are.

I spent only 5 minutes thinking about the above statement, and I’ve already deemed it as accurate.

I have a multitude of friends from over the years – I like to consider myself a social butterfly, but what’s been my lifeline is utilizing these said friendships to make life a bit more juicy and rewarding. Like most girls, you’ve just gravitated towards people and never really understood why you preferred spending time with these select few. My childhood partner in crime and I went on a 10-day trip to Canada  – driving back and forth. Towards the end I wanted to kill her. After dropping her off at home, it took 5 minutes to call her and confirm when she was coming over again that night.

We get drawn to specific people and friends … we’re not always 100% sure why.  Give it some thought – you’ll find a trend. Maybe you’re super pushy and you love that passive friend that goes along with your mischief? Maybe you thrive off of creativity and can’t live without someone challenging your brain with ideas?  Maybe you have different types of friends to appease all 104 of your personality traits and have always steered clear from set groups?

I have ONE trend that keeps surfacing – I am immediately drawn and closest to GIRLS THAT HAVE BROTHERS. I sat in a room with my web designer with whom I never had to filter my thoughts and always felt overly comfortable with– and she had the revelation. She said… “You have a brother don’t you? So do I”.  Why yes, yes I do!! Did yours fart on you? Make him smell his feet before you could partake in duck hunt? Did he beat up anyone who cut you in the line waiting for the bus in elementary school? Maybe he was the first to call out if you looked ugly in the morning? Gosh darn it, you lived like this too?

Over 90% of my closest friendships had a brother counterpart. Especially the bad a**  women I jive with creatively.

We identified a few perks from growing up with our male siblings, aside from just thinking we were too cool for school:

We had a strong sense of self, less sensitive to critical feedback and the confidence to take things in stride.

We understood the male species on another level – given the extensive education we acquired from growing up with them over the majority of our lifetime it Tee-d us up for dating and knowing how to navigate these creatures, and what we expected from them.

Sass. We had more Sass. I could banter with these women without many boundaries and could let our freak flags fly free.

We could put up a good argument and not take it too personal. We have a thick skin and can hold our own. We’ve been roughhousing with these gentleman our whole lives, so when it came down to needing to face adversity – we knew how to finagle our way out. Talking smack behind someone’s back; never got us anywhere and we knew that. We had the chutzpah to handle situations head on.

I may have come out with a few more bruises on my legs, dirt under my fingernails, and a potty mouth – but I can’t imagine not having the shield of armor I wear going through life.