Sometimes I question why I hang out with so many guys, even though I’m a girl. In high school I had tons of guys friends, and college has proved no different.

The majority of people I am still friends with from high school are all guys and I hang out with them regularly when I’m home. My first friend at Quinnipiac was a guy and he is still one of my best friends to this day.

I sometimes feel like people look at me funny or judge me when I am the only girl surrounded by a group of guys, but then I realize that it really doesn’t matter and it is very trivial for someone to judge you because you’re with a group of the opposite gender.

I have plenty of friends who are girls and I love them just as much as my guy friends. But I am well aware that when I count all the friends I’ve made in my life both from home and from Quinnipiac, the majority rules: I have more guy friends than girl friends.

As a kid I always felt like I was “one of the boys” because I generally found myself surrounded by my guy friends in school. I had a handful of girl friends, but most of the time I would spend recess playing with all the guys, whether it be an intense game of hide and seek or kickball.

I still feel that way to this day. Sometimes I would rather sit down with my guy friends and play a 30-move game of Mario Party until 2 a.m., screaming, laughing and cursing at one another while stuffing our faces with pizza.

Now I am not saying that I play to the gender stereotype, because I would most certainly do the same exact thing with any of my girl friends. But not all girls like to do that, and that’s okay. Some of my guy friends don’t like to do that either and that’s fine, too.

It’s important to know that as a girl, there’s nothing wrong with having too many guy friends. In fact, there’s no such thing as too many guy friends. The only person who can judge you for it is yourself.

For the longest time I always felt weird because I would constantly find myself walking around campus with a group of guys, but now as I enter my junior year I realize that no one really cares who you’re hanging out with.

The most important thing I have learned over the years is you shouldn’t see gender when choosing your friends, especially your best friends.

Sure, it’s great to have a lot of girl friends when you’re a girl because you get to do what are considered “girly things,” but it’s also good to have a group of guys to hang out with to balance it.

Even though my scale is slightly off, I love all of my friends the same. Whether it’s a guy friend or a girl friend, I’m friends with them because they make me laugh, make me feel better when I’m upset, they listen to me rant and they’re just great people to spend time with.

So just remember: it’s okay to be one of the boys sometimes. It’s okay to have an enormous amount of guy friends if you’re a girl. It’s even okay to have a lot of girl friends if you’re a guy. In the end, if these people make you happy and you always want to spend time with them, that’s what best friends are, right?