5 Things You Would Only Do For Your Best Friend

You’re always down to tell your best friend just how much you love her, but National Friendship Week is Aug. 16 through Aug. 22, and if you haven’t already, now is the perfect time to show her just how much you appreciate all that she does — even if that simply means showing up at her apartment with a bottle of wine and two glasses ready to go in hand. Say what you will about #squadgoals, but friendship really is what makes the world go round — a recent National Friendship Week survey suggests that we actually are getting by with a little help from our friends. The global social network Skout conducted a survey of 1,500 men and women in the United States, and found that people are more than willing to lend a hand to a friend in need, and make some pretty big compromises to accommodate a friend's wishes.

And we're not just talking alternating favorite pizza toppings or choosing to go to a bar that is closer to your friend's place than yours. According to this survey, a whopping 81 percent of survey respondents reported that they would be willing to donate a kidney to a friend who needed one, if they were indeed a match. That's about 32 percent more than who would seriously consider donating a kidney to a stranger.

And it's not just life or death situations that elicit these overwhelming levels of empathy from our friends. According to the survey, 56 percent of people said that they would overcome a fear of heights to go skydiving with a friend. (It's good to know we're challenging our friends to step out of their comfort zones!) Even our friends' personal hygiene is important to us. The majority of both women (84 percent) and men (56 percent) reported that they would help a good friend of the same gender with hair removal and "manscaping," respectively, if they were asked. The bonds of friendship apparently know no boundaries.

In other words, people tend to take friendship pretty seriously. It makes sense, of course. Your friends have seen you at your best, and at your worst. They’ve been there for you when you needed to celebrate, and needed to vent. And because of this, you’d do anything for them — no matter how zany or extreme. Manscaping and skydiving aside, here are five things that you would only do for the best of friends.

1. Tell a white lie to get them out of trouble

Yes, professor, she's running a little late because she was volunteering this morning. Those Habitat for Humanity houses don't build themselves!

2. Clean their room or car just because

You don't even have to ask where anything goes, because you already know where she keeps every kind of spoon in her kitchen.

3. Drive a crazy long way to see them

Shoutout to my L.A. friends who decided to get married in New Mexico in the middle of the summer. Love y'all. Totally would've skipped it for lesser friends.

4. Pet-sit even though you're allergic

I'll just take like half a bottle of allergy meds, and keep my fingers crossed.

5. Be their plus-one to a work event

Hey, who cares if it's super awkward and you don't know anybody. There's free food and an open bar.

Images: anna gutermuth/Flickr; Giphy (5)