There's a point in a relationship when you feel like a nuclear bomb is about to explode inside your throat. Like you’ve swallowed liters of Pepsi and chased them with Alka-Seltzer. Like Miley Cyrus is swinging on that good old wrecking ball of hers, aiming for your pathetic little heart. This is the horrifying instant, in which the words “I love you,” want to pull a geographic from your mouth, and into the perfectly shaped ears of your beloved. 

Some of us relish hearing and saying these words. We feel brave, uplifted, open, and closer to our partners. Brene Brown defines vulnerability as “uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.”If this isn’t it, I don’t know what is.

TO OTHERS, HOWEVER, THE THOUGHT OF TELLING SOMEONE WE LOVE THEM IS ON PAR WITH WATCHING A HOME VIDEO OF OUR OWN CONCEPTION, WHICH OUR PARENTS ADMIT, GOT PRETTY WILD.