"You're attached to this. I'm not."

This came from someone who I had spent months of my life developing feelings for and experiencing things with. This came from someone who once valued how much I cared and how attentive I was to what was best for him, for us, and for the future.

All at once, though, the fact that I cared was a problem. Really?

Let's talk.

My generation is belittled for taking the closeness out of romantic relationships.

We meet people on Tinder, we go on dates and feel the need to document the whole thing for Snapchat. We get engaged and who is the first person we tell? Instagram, that's who.

That's what we're known for. That's what makes the Baby Boomers scoff and explain that our social media communication dependency ruins our face-to-face communication ability. That, they decided, is what ruins our relationships: because we don't care enough.

When someone my age comes along and wants to talk about the future, thinks in terms of "we" and not "me", and actually cares, we're still looked at like the outsider.

I'm looked at like an outsider.

I will never apologize for getting emotionally invested in the relationships I share. I won't apologize for thinking that every man I date may very well be the man I spend the rest of my life with.

Isn't that the point of dating, to find what you want in your "forever person"?

I'm often told that I'm too mature for my age, and in my early twenties, I shouldn't be thinking about getting married, sharing a life with someone, and having a family.

Wanting that, by extension, means that I get attached to every man I share my life with, no matter how long we're together. I won't apologize for that.

I won't apologize for caring.

Why? Because it's not a flaw.

Stop treating it like it is.