A conversation came up in one of the groups I'm a member of, asking how people define the difference between a friendship, and a partnership. As a relationship anarchist, I think that can be really tricky, and the lines between the two can get really blurry. To keep things super simple, I would say a friendship is someone with whom I have a positive bonding connection with. Be that social, platonic, romantic, sexual, any combination thereof, or something else entirely. A partnership is a friendship with mutual commitment to grow together in the aspects of connection we share. This is why as individuals we can have friends-with-benefits (a phrase I don't particularly like, but am using here for ease of reference), while at the same time having platonic partners. It's not about the "level of intimacy" (another phrase I'm not super comfortable with), but about the mutual commitment. The concepts are not mutually exclusive. And relationships are not static, they change. A friend may become a partner, a partner may become a friend. You can find you have relationships that don't fit into any pre-conceived categories. That's all okay! In the end, I don't think there are any set-in-stone definitions that everyone can agree upon, so just enjoy all of your interpersonal relationships for what they are: unique!