If you fall in love, you might get married, and with each year that passes there’s a traditional present to exchange. Paper for year one. Copper for nine. Rubies for 40. Romantic love has its designated rituals.
   
It’s a different story for the relationships with our girlfriends. There may be no formal anniversaries, or tokens of affection to mark milestones, but there is, actually, so much more. What we get from female friendships is deeper than diamonds, though it sparkles just as much.
   
Our celebrations are our meet-ups. Big hugs on arrivals – the kind where you clasp longer. At the door, or over the table, “What are we having? Red or white? Or fizz?” It’s the conversations we can’t wait to get started on, falling over ourselves with news, sharing opinions and offering advice.

Are the bonds between women more important than those shared by men? Well, possibly, according to science. One study, conducted by UCLA*, found that while men usually responded to stress with the familiar ‘fight-or-flight’ alert, women often showed a ‘tend-or-befriend’ reaction – being there for each other, offering support when needed and finding strength together.
   
So, this spring, we’re celebrating the friends we can’t live without. Because they just get it. Around the corner or half the world away, they’re the ones we know we can always count on. Advice. Celebrations. Commiserations. Ability to see the funny side… Sharing everyday stories of mundanity that, to them, are fascinating. The friends we’ve known since school, the ones we shared a flat with, the ones we met at the school gates, the ones who are always there for a Friday-night catch-up or Saturday lunch, like this one. Maybe they’re not the love of our life, but our love stories together mean just as much.
   
Better together? Absolutely.

*https://taylorlab.psych.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2014/10/2000Biobehavioral-responses-to-stress-in-femalestend-and-befriend.pdf