They say that love, by itself, is never enough to sustain a partnership. The older I get (and the more interest my student loans accrue), the more true I find that adage to be. The willingness to stay together that comes from being in love is honestly only the tip of the iceberg. Relationships require a unique combination of personal skills like empathy, compromise, and communication. And there are a ton of external forces — like death, money, parenthood, and personal identity — that can put a strain on how well two people work together. To top it off, there is an extreme misrepresentation of fairy-tale love across our media landscape, one that often ignores the ways race, class, and sexuality affect how partnership looks and works.