I don't have a title for this

I never really understood this concept of boy vs. girl: when people immediately thought that two people were dating because they were walking in the halls together and looked pretty friendly. Why is it that we have this urge to assume that two people are dating or to assume that they are flirting with each other when they are genuinely friends and have stated numerous times before? I understand not all people do this but I've seen this so many times that at this point, I just had to write about it. My friends don't really have a gender label in my mind. They are just my friends: I don't care if s/he is a boy or a girl because to me they are people. When people assume that I date every guy I am friends with, I'm honestly offended. Granted I may have felt some kind of attraction to them in the first place, thus bringing me to become friends with them, but there is a difference in the type of attraction here.

I am attracted to my friends as people: not as potential crushes or boyfriends. For the longest time I've misunderstood the difference myself although I was the one in control of my emotions but frankly I was in elementary, middle, and high school. What did/do I really know? How should I have known what direction my feelings were actually going? I was going through puberty... I shouldn't be the expert on what my feelings are or how to label them. I won't say that I've never been romantically attracted to a person of the opposite gender, but that I haven't been attracted to every single guy I have talked to. I am attracted to people first as PEOPLE and to assume I am romantically attracted to them as the opposite gender only is honestly very irritating at this point. It's not that I don't understand it: I mean, I've participated in this social norm several times before but it's something I'm trying to change.

Some of you reading this may think I'm a hypocrite or that I'm doing this to "prove something" but honestly - this is my opinion. This is my rant. This is my lense. You can make whatever you want of it.