I try very hard to avoid conversations about falling in love getting married having kids by avoiding holiday celebrations entirely. However, all the holidays are jam packed at the end of the year so people are more out and about socializing, and I’m still empathetic enough to want to hear others out. People have cool stories!

aro culture is being kinda sad that people take kindness as an invitation to romance. That sorta implies that kindness isn't a bare minimum but some signal that you want to date.

recently saw a comment section full of people, primarily women, talking about loving living with their best friend and being sad about having to live separately one day. some people talking about missing living with their best friend, some talking about “getting” to live with their best friend “until” they find partners. saw one person mention that moving out to move in with a partner felt like a divorce. it makes me so genuinely sad… all these people recognizing the joy they can find living outside the norm, letting themself live with a friend instead of a romantic partner, but still feeling like they have to live with a spouse eventually. like it’s not even a decision, just an inevitability.

And it’s usually them complaining that they’re in a romantic relationship as if it’s the only type of relationship they’re allowed to have with said person? “It’s romantic until I find someone else to be romantically committed to then we can’t talk anymore again sorry”