Being The First to Say "I Love You"

Being the first to say “I love you” terrified me.

Some, I’ve said it to friends…some, I’ve said it to romantically…and some, I’ve said it to with a mix of both. “What if they don’t say it back?” “What if they think I'm weird?” “What if they reject me?” Those were all thoughts I’ve had and I’m sure you’ve had them too.

After years of working on myself, I’ve realized this...If I’ve gotten to the point where I feel a need to express my feelings with an “I love you”, it’s not because I need or even want to hear it back. It’s because I feel so much emotion, comradery, or romantic love for this person that I just want them to know.

If you ask me, that's a beautiful thing. I mean...I was always taught to need validation when I say, “I love you”, but why? Why put all this pressure on myself and on them to say it back?

Once I started expressing this to people and even the person I'm dating now, I found myself feeling so much more at ease about "I love you." I finally felt like I was validating myself and my own emotions, first, while worrying about what they would say back, less.

With that being said, love is such a beautiful thing to feel in this world. So let’s be less afraid of the phrase, “I love you”, and more accepting of why we say it in the first place. ❤️ ⠀