Tortured artists. Star-crossed lovers. Pain and love.

If we look through society and pop culture, we find this idea that in order for something to be great it needs to be painful.

Poetry cannot be beautiful unless you're heartbroken.

Love is not love unless it hurts.

I mean think of everyone we revere. Romeo and Juliet were both emotionally unstable and paired together they felt suicide was "romantic." Even in the 21st century, we use them as a paragon of what great love is. Or look at Chuck and Blair(I am on a Gossip Girl binge). They were obviously in an emotionally abusive relationship yet I along with the rest of the world labeled them as our OTP. And when we look at the famous artists from Poe to Picasso we seem to be drawn to the emotionally damaged ones.This concept that love and art are mutually attached to pain follows the same ideology we use to rationalize unhappy relationships and even worse romanticise abusive relationships.

It shouldn't hurt to love. Yes, there are arguments in relationships and issues but it shouldn't be so common that it is the third person in the relationship. And most importantly, it shouldn't hurt to be in love and be in a relationship with someone. While work is involved in any relationship to maintain itself it should not be a heavy chore that is always being done.

Despite what we read, love is not constantly forgiving betrayals and being unhappy. It's being best friends and two individuals that don't complete each other but complement each other.