Maybe you've been in this situation before: it’s a Friday night and you have no plans, so you go to your friend's house. Except your friends are a group of rowdy guys whose only plans on this Friday night are playing pong and watching endless amounts of YouTube videos.

As you sit there, aimlessly watching some stupid video that they find hilarious, you wonder exactly how you’ve gotten yourself into this position. Why haven't you got more girlfriends you can hang out with, do your nails, and gossip about the latest celeb news with?

Oh right, because you prefer it this way.

There are a bunch of pros that come with basically being considered one of the guys. For starters, you can wear sweatpants and have your hair up when you hang out and it wouldn’t matter to them. They barely even notice you have hair in the first place, so who cares if it’s an absolute mess when you hang out? They couldn't care less about your appearance; they’re just glad to have someone else to hang out with.

And while you get to wear whatever you want, you also know you’ll never be judged by them. Sure, we could all have best friends that we trust, but something I’ve come to find out is that girls are mean. Of course, I’m making a generalization, but girls will talk about anyone and everyone behind their backs. They’re judgmental because they’ve been raised to think that way.

Guys, on the other hand, don’t care as much about who they’re seen with. Not only do they let you wear whatever you want and think you look good in it, they let you be whoever you want when you’re around them. You can tell them anything, and if they’re anything like my friends, they’ll hype you up about it, too.

It's even easier talking to them about boys. Your girlfriend could call your crush ugly or tell you the truth: that you could do better. But your guy friends? They’ll tell you exactly what you want to hear: “OMG, he’s soooo cute” in their best attempt at a high-pitched girly voice.

You’ll learn a lot of new things from your guy friends, too. Like, I bet you didn’t know their voices could go that high when they talked. They teach you how to play video games or the tricks to pong. OK, maybe they don't really teach you as much as you’ve had to teach yourself how to keep up with them when they play. Odds are, you’ve never played video games like Halo or Dota 2 until you’ve spent so much time watching everyone else play that you’ve become curious and you don’t want to be left out. So, you pick up that controller, bug them about which buttons do what, and eventually are good enough that you’re not dying every single time.

The same goes for other games, too. When you’re the only girl and someone needs a partner for pong, you may not always be the first choice, but when you actually start playing, hitting cup after cup, the guys are impressed. And you have them to thank for it.

Sure, it all sounds like fun and games (pun intended) when you're one of the guys, but just like everything else in the world, there are some downsides, too. First off, you don’t know how to talk to guys. I mean, everyone thinks you can talk to boys flawlessly because that’s all you hang out with, but the truth is the way you talk to your guy friends and a potential love interest is not the same. You still get tongue tied talking to someone you think is cute. It doesn’t get easier, trust me.

And on top of that, boys can be intimidated by you. You’re a strong-willed, independent girl who can hold her own among a bunch of guy friends. You’ve gotten so good at pong, you beat all the guys you play against, and if you’re playing against your crush, it's not the best thing to do. Sometimes you find yourself slightly more masculine than a guy himself, and that doesn’t help.

It also doesn’t help when you start talking to a boy and your guard of eight plus guy friends are watching protectively from the corner. Guys can be very intimidated by other guys, and when your posse is exclusively dudes, it’s a win-lose situation.

Overall, there are pros and cons to being one of the guys. And for all the good and all the bad, I wouldn’t want it any other way.