"I remember the first time I told him that I loved him. We had been dating for a while and   he had  driven me to Kansas for graduate school. Standing in the airport, about to let him    fly back, I found  the confidence to say something. Whispering those words in his ear, with tears streaming down my  face, was the most scary, relieving, yet heart-warming thing I  have ever felt. And I remember when  he heard it, he hugged me even tighter."