I think I blinked three times during the entire 147 minute showcase of Sex and the City 2.  I didn’t want to miss a single drool-worthy second of high fashion, I couldn’t stop fathoming how well Aiden had aged and I didn’t want to miss any of Carrie’s one-liner snippets of advice. And while soaking it all in, I noticed something else.

As we all know, each woman in SATC is incredibly different. You’ve got Samantha the sex-fiend, Miranda the serious one, Charlotte the traditionalist, and Carrie the un-traditionalist. They’re opposing forces, but they come together to make something wonderful and long lasting.

Without the extreme diversity of each woman, would the friendships embedded in Sex and the City be as interesting and strong? What if the show was based off of four friends like Samantha? Besides there being lots of ‘she-banging’ would it work?

Nope.

Think about your group of friends. If it’s anything like mine, you are all very different from one another. And that’s why you love them. We need diversity in our friendships because everyone brings a little somethin’ different to the table and you take a little from every single one. Knowing what every college girl needs in her life, I’ve compiled a list of the 6 friends every girl needs to keep around for the long haul:

1. The Motivated Friend
We all need a friend like this when you’ve been sprawled out on your couch watching E! Network all day.  You can spot this friend right away Freshman year of college. She’s the first of your friends involved in clubs on campus.  Sophomore year, she’s become the president of a club. Junior year, she has an awesome internship. Senior year, she’s landed a sweet job before you’ve even graduated. Sure, she’ll probably make you feel a little less than along the way, but she’ll also light a fire under your ass to succeed.

2. The Rock Solid Friend
She’s your BFF. The ‘go-to-gal’ you find to whine to, talk to, cry to, and who will love you and shove a bag of Doritos in your face when you need it most. She’s trustworthy and loyal.  She has so much dirt on your life you could plant a garden of your secrets (sorry, bad analogy).  You went to your first frat party together and shared your last. If all goes well (and she keeps those secrets to herself) she will be winking at you during her bridesmaid speech at your wedding.

3. The Party Friend
I also like to refer to this buddy as your wing-woman.  If you’re sitting restlessly in your room craving a night out in the town and all of your other (boring) friends aren’t going out on a Tuesday night, she is your girl. After you shoot her a ‘out tonight?’ T-bomb and wait for the ‘DUH’ response, she will be at your place, donning a mini-dress, in 30 minutes flat. She’s always up for anything, be it shotgunning beers, scoping out dudes, singing karaoke, or whatever other ridiculous ideas (“Let’s jump in the foutntain!”) you come up with as the night unfolds.

4.The Wise Friend
She may not be Buddha, but she knows pretty much everything.  She knows how to cook raw chicken, exactly what to say to the boy in a text message, and how to perfect a seriously beautiful resume. She takes you to the best happy hours, shows you the coolest internship opportunities and knows all about red wine.  She seems well beyond her years as a college student (and sometimes makes you feel like you have the IQ of a toddler), but when she’s dishing out her latest advice, it’s totally OK by you.

5. The Gossip Friend
She’s got the dish on everyone. And you want to know the dish on everyone. Match made in heaven.

6. The Warrior Friend
She will stick up for you in any situation.  She will scream at the bouncer after you got caught sneaking your own flask into the bar. She will never forgive the a-hole who stood you up back in high school. She will get up in anybody’s face for you and has pulled you out of more holes than you can count on one hand. She’ll be there through thick (think: bouncer’s necks) and thin (think: super skinny bitch who stole your man), no matter what.

Wit these six girls, you can get through anything, from the wildest party night to the worst breakup in history.

Which friend are you?

[This story was originally posted by Brittany - University of Saint Thomas.]

In the last year, it seems as though being single has been my specialty. While flings and hookups have come and gone (pun intended) and dates have left me with some less than desirable memories, my current single status has remained loyally by my side. I’ve learned a lot in the past year and I’ve discovered that single girls around the world are all in the same fabulous pair of shoes.

So if you’re sick of sitting at a table for one, eating a meal portioned for two, I cordially invite you to join The Single Girl Society, where being single is more than status, it’s a lifestyle. Of course, with everything in life, the single girl lifestyle comes with rules and I’ve picked up quite a few along the way. So kick back, grab a drink and let the lessons I’ve learned serve as your very own roadmap to transitioning to and enduring the single life

So it’s been a month and half since you’re best friend got dumped (in the douchiest way possible) and she’s still going on and on about how she’s “totally over it even though his new girl looks like a little too much like Shaun White” and you’re not sure how much longer you can stand to hear her relationship woes. We’ve all been there, thinking to ourselves, “Well if you’re so over it, why are we still talking about it?”

The answer is simple. She’s not over it. But you sure as hell are. So what’s a girl to do when her wingwoman’s stuck in a rut?

Lesson 9: Stand By Your Single Sisters

Look, I know it’s cheesy but as single ladies, we’re only as good as the girls we surround ourselves with and when one of us is down, we’re all down.

Of course it gets frustrating sometimes, watching your formally single and fabulous bestie go from taking names (and numbers) and kicking ass to sullen and sunken into a sofa watching “The Notebook” and screaming at Rachel McAdams to “get a job and forget men already!” (True story.)

Sometimes the single life knocks us down and out but as single soldiers, it’s our job to stand by our friends and support them, even if that means having the hear Taylor Swift ballads pump through your apartment on repeat. The post-breakup version of your girlfriend needs you now more than ever because you love her even if her ex didn’t. Right now it’s her in tears but someday it will be you (if it hasn’t happened already).

Maybe the “sad and single” act is starting to get old and you’re itching to have those carefree nights out on town with your best friend – the one who made you laugh so hard you shot tequila out of your nose, not this possessed version who secretly makes you want to slit your wrists – but give it time. Eventually all of your post-breakup spa days and girls’ nights are going to pay off.

The only thing you can do is be there for your girls when they need you. And if you think her wailing “My Heart Will Go On” is a little over the top, then no offense, but get over yourself.

If you’re unsure of whether or not your girlfriend is truly appreciative of the time you put in to help her heal, then just wait til you’re in her shoes (because it’s bound to happen when you’re living the single life) and when she’s there agreeing with you that your ex “never appreciated you anyways,” you’ll know her moping wasn’t in vain.

The single life can be a rough and bumpy road and maybe right now it’s got one of your girlfriends on the bench but who knows – you could be next and it could be worse than what you’re currently going through with your friend. And when that day comes, I promise you, you’re going to want her by your side.

Take the time to tell a girlfriend how much you love or appreciate her today and don’t ever let your own exasperation get in the way of being there for a friend when she needs you the most.

My girlfriends are single, fabulous and most importantly, supportive. Yes, we cry and we break down and we curse the world and all the men in it. But we also dance nights away as they melt into mornings, laugh hysterically over all our dating fails and we lean on each other for everything – the good, the bad, and the heartbroken.

Being single is great but it’s far more fun to be single when you’ve got your sisters surrounding you. Whether they’re on top of the world or feeling a little burned by it, at least they’re by your side and that’s more than the guys you’ll cry over can say.

Get the first 8 rules of the Single Girl Society right here.

It’s the start of a new school year and to honor that, we at CollegeCandy are bringing back a fan-favorite series, “We’ve All Been There.”  (We tried to get another national holiday/long weekend for you guys but it’s way harder than we thought so this will have to do.) Every week, Lauren – University of Michigan will comment on the common experiences all college women share – like the first day of classes or trying to figure out if that boy is crushin’ too. Read, relate, cringe and enjoy.

The boy you love just broke your heart, so your girlfriends decide that drinking is in order. Because nothing numbs the pain quite like a few shots of SoCo. Together with your roommates, you pick out a super hot outfit (consisting of some combination of low cut top/push up bra), take a few pre-gaming shots and head out the door to either “show him what he’s missing,” or “forget about that jerk.”

The night is perfect: you dance, you drink (a lot), and you even find a cute boy to flirt with in the corner.

Then, obvi, the relentless craving for breadsticks and marinara takes over and you and the girls head home for the Late Night Special from your favorite pizza place.

You make your way to your room to change before the food arrives and are suddenly reminded of just how depressed you are. Why doesn’t he love me? you ask yourself. What is wrong with me? Maybe if I just send him an email and tell him how I feel he will change his mind and want to be with me.

You sit down at your desk.

You turn on John Hiatt’s, “Have a Little Faith in Me,” or the “love songs” channel on Pandora.

You open your email, hoping deep down inside that he has already sent you one, that he realizes he made a big mistake, that he too is sitting at home crying to the soothing sounds of The Fray. That he still loves you.

He hasn’t.
Your heart sinks.

As the mascara stained tears streak your face and form a puddle on your desk, you start writing your own:

hi. i got drinks and i lovre you. i dont know why you hate meeeee. i lobve yoiu. i want to eat breadsticlks but im too sad czu i love you.

At this point the pizza has arrived and your roommates storm into your room, pizza box in hand, to find you weeping silently over your laptop as you type away. Snot is dripping from your nose and you wipe it with your bare arm just before it hits your upper lip. You don’t care. You just keep typing and crying and really connecting with the sad lyrics blaring out of your laptop speakers.

If you are lucky, your roommates get to you before you hit the send button. If you are not quite as lucky (or a really fast typer), it is only a matter of time until the email is opened and any shred of post break-up dignity is lost. But until then, there is pizza. And breadsticks. And unyielding drunken hope that he’s thinking the same things you just wrote, he was just too distraught to put them in an email yet.

A hope which inevitably dies the minute you wake up in the morning and realize what you’ve done.

Yeah, you’re not alone; we’ve all been there before. Many times.
Just be grateful at least you didn’t wake up with a full slice of pizza smashed between your keys and your screen.

However, amidst all that excitement, there’s one gray cloud looming: you’ll be leaving your best friends from home behind.

No matter how much fun we have with our school best friends, it always sucks to leave behind your home BFFs – the girls and guys you grew up with, who know all about the times you made a fool of yourself in 9^th grade homeroom, and whom you can still go out with and have a good time. It especially sucks after a summer spent with them, when you’ve gotten used to seeing them on a daily basis, and you know that when school starts things will be different. Because let’s be honest: despite all of our best intentions to stay in touch with our BFFs during the academic year, it’s usually pretty tough. Between the parties and the actual work, it’s easy to start speaking only once a week or learning about one another’s lives through Newsfeed.

For those of you who are bummed about leaving behind your best girlfriends, don’t worry – you still have a few more weeks of summertime fun left, which means plenty of time to stock up on some serious BFF bonding sessions. So here is a list of things you should make time to do with your girls before you’re all back in school, back in the grind, and back to intermittent IMs.

1. Make dinner together.
Whether you’re a cook or not, I guarantee you and your girlfriends will have a good time making dinner together. Choose a yummy meal that is also pretty easy to make (no reason to get in over your head), and let the fun begin. Me and my friends do it every few months that we can all get together, and we absolutely love how cute and kitchsy we feel making our own dinner. Go food shopping together, get a bottle of wine, and give each other cooking jobs. Just please, trust me on this one, try to have at least one person who knows what they’re doing.

2. Have a sleepover.
Remember when you were 13 and you begged your parents every weekend to let your best friends sleep over? Well, now that we’re in college, we have sleepovers on the reg – but they’re  usually of the drunken variety, when one of us is too hammered to get ourselves home in one piece. These are always fun, no doubt about that, but try doing it with your friends when you’re all sober. Watch funny movies, eat popcorn and ice cream, play your favorite childhood board games, talk about that cute guy you hooked up with last week, and get through the night without someone throwing up in the bathroom. You’ll feel like you’re in middle school all over again. Only with bigger boobs and better stories.

3. Go out – ALL of you.
Pick a date, make sure all of your girls have off of work, and go somewhere fun (instead of just the local bar you’ve been frequenting all summer). Get dressed up in cute dresses, heels, do your hair… and get wasted. Everyone, no excuses allowed. Have that one last night of drunken debauchery to have something fun to talk about with your roommates on the first day back.

4. Road Trip to the Outlets.
Since you obv have to show up at school wearing something cute and new, a shopping trip before the semester starts is a must. And a shopping trip that involves tons of cheap threads and a mini-roadtrip is a BFF bonding mega-must. You’ve got girl time, fashion shows, Auntie Anne’s pretzels and a ton of new duds to show off during Welcome Week.

5. Make legit plans to visit each other.
At the end of the summer when you’re with all of your friends, you’re all inevitably going to talk about how much you’re all going to visit each other. And 85% of the time, it doesn’t happe. Take out your calendars and set a date for a reunion. It can be at one of your schools, back at home, or at some fun and fabulous destination (Vegas, anyone?!), just as long as it happens.

Nothing makes me want to curl up and die faster than an invite to a group dinner. From start to finish it’s an intensive game of twenty questions. Where should we go to eat? Do they have vegetarian options? Can you be there by 7 or not? Did you seriously invite her? Can I get the barbecue chicken salad without the dressing, chicken, cheese, lettuce, or bowl?

The night always starts off on a bad note because no one can ever agree on a restaurant. The person who always wants sushi suddenly claims they’re craving Papa Johns and the person who always orders the side salad at every restaurant is claiming they’re craving chicken-fried-lard. And once everyone finally settles on a Mexican place, my roommate claims that the water there is too spicy.

And then I show up at the restaurant and somehow get stuck sitting at the end next to the one person I can’t stand. So now I’m spending the entire meal having forced conversation about the weather and frozen yogurt. I try a few times to get in on the convo at the other end of the table. They’re laughing, they’re crying, they’re pricking their fingers and becoming blood sisters. But my  biggest contribution to their conversation is “What? I can’t hear what you’re saying down there. A pact? I want to be in on this pregnancy pact.”

Right before I finish my lengthy monologue on the best fro-yo flavors, the bill arrives. Doomsday. The person who ordered the 9-course meal and 16 bottles of wine suggests splitting the bill evenly since everything pretty much cost the same. Except I’m always the person who orders chicken broth and a lettuce leaf to save money. So actually it’s not all equal. But I can’t say anything because then everyone stares at me like I’m being cheap for pointing out that I shouldn’t have to put in $50 when I only spent $7. And then the bill always comes up short despite everyone claiming they put in the right amount of money.

Finally the dinner ends with the never-flattering pictures taken across the table (less than a foot away). When will Facebook invent the technology to de-tag a picture before it’s even put up on Facebook?

But you know what? Despite all my complaints (and inevitable backlash from my roommate who will state for a fact that kettle corn is just as spicy as wasabi), I can never turn down an invite. Because although I clearly suffer from group-dinner-anxiety, I have a much larger case of feeling-left-out-when-everyone-talks-about-inside-jokes-from-the-dinner-for-the-next-6-years syndrome.

There are some unwritten rules of friendship we all know: Thou shalt hold her hair back when she is praying to the porcelain god after a long Friday night. Thou shalt never date her ex-boyfriend, brother or best male friend. Thou shalt never have to watch Say Yes to the Dress alone. Thou shalt risk your life to satisfy the drunken cravings of your BFF.

But that’s where the clear-cut rules end and where the giant friendship gray area begins.

How can you tell if you are in a toxic friendship? Do you know how to tell if your friends are talking about you behind your back? And that friend who always compliments a terrible outfit choice or lets you date jerk after jerk – does she understand that, despite your feelings, honesty is the best policy? That there are certain moments between friends that always require the truth?

And how do you know if you’re the toxic one in the relationship?  Think back to the last fight you had with your boyfriend, your mom, your boss, whoever – did every little detail end up on your newsfeed? Did you give them the ol’ “talk to the hand cuz the face ain’t listening”? Yeah, probably not the best course of action, right?

Friendship is sacred so don’t take advantage of the good friends you’ve got, and definitely don’t give your loyalty out to the girls who don’t deserve it. Pause, evaluate and move forward with your worthy BFFs.

I think I blinked three times during the entire 147 minute showcase of Sex and the City 2.  I didn’t want to miss a single drool-worthy second of high fashion, I couldn’t stop fathoming how well Aiden had aged and I didn’t want to miss any of Carrie’s one-liner snippets of advice. And while soaking it all in, I noticed something else.

As we all know, each woman in SATC is incredibly different. You’ve got Samantha the sex-fiend, Miranda the serious one, Charlotte the traditionalist, and Carrie the un-traditionalist. They’re opposing forces, but they come together to make something wonderful and long lasting.

Without the extreme diversity of each woman, would the friendships embedded in Sex and the City be as interesting and strong? What if the show was based off of four friends like Samantha? Besides there being lots of ‘she-banging’ would it work?

Nope.

Think about your group of friends. If it’s anything like mine, you are all very different from one another. And that’s why you love them. We need diversity in our friendships because everyone brings a little somethin’ different to the table and you take a little from every single one. Knowing what every college girl needs in her life, I’ve compiled a list of the 6 friends every girl needs to keep around for the long haul:

1. The Motivated Friend
We all need a friend like this when you’ve been sprawled out on your couch watching E! Network all day.  You can spot this friend right away Freshman year of college. She’s the first of your friends involved in clubs on campus.  Sophomore year, she’s become the president of a club. Junior year, she has an awesome internship. Senior year, she’s landed a sweet job before you’ve even graduated. Sure, she’ll probably make you feel a little less than along the way, but she’ll also light a fire under your ass to succeed.

2. The Rock Solid Friend
She’s your BFF. The ‘go-to-gal’ you find to whine to, talk to, cry to, and who will love you and shove a bag of Doritos in your face when you need it most. She’s trustworthy and loyal.  She has so much dirt on your life you could plant a garden of your secrets (sorry, bad analogy).  You went to your first frat party together and shared your last. If all goes well (and she keeps those secrets to herself) she will be winking at you during her bridesmaid speech at your wedding.

3. The Party Friend
I also like to refer to this buddy as your wing-woman.  If you’re sitting restlessly in your room craving a night out in the town and all of your other (boring) friends aren’t going out on a Tuesday night, she is your girl. After you shoot her a ‘out tonight?’ T-bomb and wait for the ‘DUH’ response, she will be at your place, donning a mini-dress, in 30 minutes flat. She’s always up for anything, be it shotgunning beers, scoping out dudes, singing karaoke, or whatever other ridiculous ideas (“Let’s jump in the foutntain!”) you come up with as the night unfolds.

4.The Wise Friend
She may not be Buddha, but she knows pretty much everything.  She knows how to cook raw chicken, exactly what to say to the boy in a text message, and how to perfect a seriously beautiful resume. She takes you to the best happy hours, shows you the coolest internship opportunities and knows all about red wine.  She seems well beyond her years as a college student (and sometimes makes you feel like you have the IQ of a toddler), but when she’s dishing out her latest advice, it’s totally OK by you.

5. The Gossip Friend
She’s got the dish on everyone. And you want to know the dish on everyone. Match made in heaven.

6. The Warrior Friend
She will stick up for you in any situation.  She will scream at the bouncer after you got caught sneaking your own flask into the bar. She will never forgive the a-hole who stood you up back in high school. She will get up in anybody’s face for you and has pulled you out of more holes than you can count on one hand. She’ll be there through thick (think: bouncer’s necks) and thin (think: super skinny bitch who stole your man), no matter what.

Wit these six girls, you can get through anything, from the wildest party night to the worst breakup in history.

Which friend are you?

"And then he was all, 'I don't know if I wanna be tied down right now...'"

Yesterday, I had a Skype date with one of my old friends from high school. It’s always fun to catch up with random high school acquaintances, but as I hung up after our chat, I was struck by the realization that all we had talked about was boys. That’s it! I heard all about her new boyfriend and how cute he is, and she asked about all of my boy dilemmas. Now, granted trading boy stories and dilemmas is always fun – it is something that girls bond over – it is by no means the most important thing going on in my life, let alone the only thing! So why is it something that I feel like I am constantly discussing?

I feel like nearly seventy percent of my daily conversations with my friends revolve around men. To be fair, I seem to be everyone’s go-to person for boy advice (sometimes I feel like I should start charging by the minute or something…), but still, even taking that into account, we as girls spend too much time worrying and over-analyzing the male species.

Now, don’t get me wrong; I am as guilty of it as any of my friends! It is one of our weaknesses as girls, to examine every text, chat, and voicemail for the smallest inkling of information:

“Wait, and what did he say next.”
“‘Let’s talk soon.’”
“Was there a period? An exclamation point?”
“No, there was nothing.”
“Hm, that’s a tough one.”

While I understand this need to analyze everything under a microscopic lens, I am tired of talking about boys all the time. There is so much more to me than my relationship status, and sometimes it can be easy to forget that.

So I am making the resolution right now: from this point forward, I am no longer letting the topic of guys dominate my interactions with my girls. Note I said dominate; there is no way that I would be able to completely eliminate boys from conversation completely (despite how badly I might want to sometimes…). It just means not letting my relationship status or the boy that I hooked up with last weekend define me or my relationships with my friends. There is so much more to me than that, and on our next Skype date, I am sure that we can find more interesting topics to discuss. I can’t wait to tell her about the paper that I just owned for my Political Science class, the really cool resume speaker that I brought in last week, and how she got this awesome internship for the summer!

Ladies, let’s not let anyone or anything define us but ourselves!

You know, your typical late night girl talk.

When I finally packed up my books and left the library, the conversation stuck with me. Anna, who is currently single and never really dated anyone in high school, was telling me about how she had never understood all of the things that some girls put up with to be in a relationship.  “I just don’t understand why such amazing girls settle for some losers. There is nothing scary about being single until the right person comes along.”

Now, obviously, there are lots of great guys out there that she was not referring to. And, obviously, a lot of girls out there are single and enjoying it. Yet, Anna really made me think, and I realized that when I first got out of my crazy long-term relationship, it took months before I would let people call me single. Months! I was so scared of the term, of what it implied and of actually being single. Now I realize that Anna is right – that there is nothing bad about being single and nothing missing, either.

The things that I got used to doing with a boyfriend, the things that I really missed, were the habits of having someone so involved in your everyday life. I liked the routine of having someone to vent to when I was having an awful day, of always having a partner for beer pong, of always having someone to study with or watch The Office with. And what I realized last night when Anna explained to me (in short simple words that even my exhausted caffeinated midterm-ed brain could understand) was that you don’t need a boyfriend to do all those things; you’ve got plenty of people around you who can do all that already.

And that’s something that I feel silly for not realizing earlier!

So today’s post is a little bit of a reminder to single (or even not so single) girls everywhere to take a minute to appreciate your friends, all of them. When you don’t have a boyfriend, you have opportunities to build closer relationships with other people. You can make a new friend your beer pong partner, or vent to your best girl (girls are just WAY more sympathetic anyway), or even watch The Office with your floor in the lounge.

Whatever it is, here is my little toast to friends and relationships of all kinds that help us get through the day. I know it’s cheesy, but in my brain that is delirious from midterms, I am so grateful to all of the amazing friends that keep me and other single girls around the world sane.

So this weekend, raise a glass (or two… or four…) and toast the amazing friends who are there when you need it most. I’ll definitely be raising a few to Anna who helped me remember the important things I do have in my life, as opposed to the other things that I do not.

So, I’m dealing with a really bad breakup right now. No, my boyfriend didn’t dump me – that would require me to have had a boyfriend in the first place. But my very good guy friend did dump his very serious girlfriend and now I’m left in the middle.

They have been dating for nearly a year and in that time I’ve grown quite close to the GF. We hung out a lot as a group and as things got more serious, I began to hang out with her independently. We’d see movies, do girl dinners and spend long hours at the library studying and making fun of her boyfriend.

And then last week, he up and broke up with her. She was shocked. I was shocked. We were all left with a lot of questions, mine being what I’m supposed to do now.

The breakup wasn’t messy – it’s not like my friend cheated – so I have no reason not to support my guy friend in his decision. If he was no longer in love with his girlfriend, who am I to take her side and give him the silent treatment? On the contrary, I support him; I know I wouldn’t want some guy to drag out a relationship with me just because he was afraid to end things. And, when it all comes down to it, he’s my really close friend and I love him no matter what.

But on the other hand, she’s my friend now, too. And my friend is hurting and needs people to lean on. And I don’t know if I can be that person. I don’t know if I have to take the side of my guy friend – who I was friends with first – and cut off all communication. I don’t know if their breakup means our breakup. I don’t know how he would feel knowing that I’m still hanging out with her, getting drinks with her, and eating broken-hearted cupcakes with her.

I don’t know what to do, but I know so many people have dealt with this exact scenario in the past. So tell me: what should I do?