Your heart runs on the right words.

Compliments are your love language, your currency, and honestly, your entire personality at least 40% of the time. You feel most loved when someone takes the time to say something kind, specific, and real, and you remember those moments for years. Someone told you your laugh was infectious in 2011 and you still think about it.

For you, actions are fine, but words are the whole point. A gift without a card feels incomplete. A hug without an "I love you" feels like a rough draft. You need the verbal confirmation, the text that says "I'm so glad you exist," the voicemail you save because it was just that good. This is not neediness. This is simply having standards.

The flip side, and you knew this was coming, is that words can wreck you just as easily as they build you up. An offhand comment someone made without thinking twice? You have it catalogued, analyzed, and revisited at 2am. You are running a whole archive of things people said to you, organized by emotional impact. It is a lot to carry around.

You also give what you want to receive, which means the people in your life are genuinely lucky. You notice things. You say them out loud. You write the birthday message that actually makes someone tear up a little. You are the person who leaves a review, sends the follow-up text, and tells people exactly why they matter. Not everyone does that.

Where you might run into trouble is expecting others to operate the same way. Some people show love by showing up, fixing things, or sitting quietly next to you, and they think that counts. Sometimes it does. But you will always, always need to hear it too, and there is nothing wrong with asking for that directly.