Adorable Aromantic

But it really has. Realizing that I’m aro led to me realizing that I’m not really that interested in romance even as a concept. I used to think “well maybe I don’t like romance for me, but I like shipping, I like it in other people!” but that was just amatonormativity talking. (Disclaimer: of course, not everyone is this way, and it’s totally fine to be aro and still like romance of any kind! This is just something that happened with me, personally.)

Realizing that I’m aro made me accept myself the way I am. It meant that I didn’t have to force myself to like romance, or to pretend that I did. I used to be really into shipping, but I’m not anymore. I used to really wish for a romantic relationship, but I don’t anymore. I’ve always valued my friends, but being aromantic made me realize just how much they mean and matter to me, even more than I had previously thought.

Being aro can change you. You don’t have to stay the same as you were before you realized you were aro. You don’t have to be minimize your identity for the sake of others. You can care about it. You can change because of it. And that’s okay. You aren’t static, you are fluid. You can change.

i agree with this so much. this post is so important and i’m so happy that i saw it. i can relate to it a lot.

before i knew aromanticism existed, i was *alright* with romance. i read romantic fics, read a romance novel, didn’t mind romantic movies. it even made me happy, but over time that started to fade away.

i started noticing that i didn’t actually have interest in romance. whenever i read fics or watched romances, i would always look forward to the sex scenes the most (i’m very sex favorable), and i wasn’t sure why. then i found aromanticism through a past friend that was aroace, and so many things began to make sense.

when i finally fit the pieces together and discovered that i’m aro, things started changing. my tolerance for romance dropped even more, and soon i disliked it altogether. i think my past “interest” in romance was just internalized arophobia, because i had believed that romance was the most important and you know, “more than friends” (typing that made me cringe).

Grey aros, you are aro enough. You belong here.

Demiromantics, you are aro enough. You belong here.

Aroflux people, you are aro enough. You belong here.

Frayromantic people, you are aro enough. You belong here.

Cupioromantic people, you are aro enough. You belong here.

Arospec Icons (2016)

There’s:

aegoromantic (autochorisromantic) | akioromantic (lithromantic) apothiromantic | autoromantic ceteroromantic | cupioromantic frayromantic | placioromantic recipromantic | requeisromantic

and i have one friend that i care about more than anyone else in the world. i would never want to date him, but he’ll always be my no.1. i worry that if i do ever have a significant other that they’ll be jealous and upset that i love one of my friends more than them. 

You matter.

You’re real.

You’re valid.

You’re wonderful.

You’re not a burden.

We are here.

We exist.

This world is not suited for us.

We have some serious struggles.

Our hardships are more than just “you get called plants/robots”.

Respect that. Respect our voices. Respect our fight.

Just please respect us. Let us talk. Let us exist in peace.