Being aro/ace is kinda like being color blind.
And I'm not color blind but I'm aro, or smt, and i feel like metaphors are one of the best way to explain something.
Anyway, this is my point.
Not every color blind person knows they are since they were little, right? You saw those Tumblr post where people are fighting on colors and then you find out someone's just color blind.
That's the same for aro/ace. We spend most of our life thinking some people are just weird, talking about sex or romance, or we don't really get it.
"That's green not red" "no, that's absolutely red!"
Like every time i had a boyfriend i was "good for him!" but i didn't really care of him, not how i should have!
You know that i said that my cat showed me what actual love is? That true, when we adopted her i had this huge connection with her, i kept worrying about her, i wanted to help and teach her, i just wanted to spend hours looking at her!
It took me a while, but it was like one of those color blind test, and someone was pointing at the hidden number. I finally understood that there's something different in me.
Now that i know i can see how people talk about romance and i understand them, i understand that they're talking about a color i can't see and it's fine, i just know.
Does this make sense? Probably not, but i needed to share ♥️ love you 😘
I think you make sense, but that may just be because I can relate to this. I have deuteranomaly which is a fancy way of saying I'm red-green colorblind. 😂
I think you nailed a better comparison than you realize. Let me explain.
I didn't always know I was colorblind. I found out when I was 17 that what I was seeing wasn't what everyone else was seeing. I had never taken a colorblindness test. We had no reason to assume I was colorblind. The norm, of course, is that people can see color.
Then, I had to have a standard physical done, and that was part of it.
I couldn't read any of the numbers.
My mom was in shock and thought I was joking. And honestly I thought she and the doctor were messing with me telling me that I should be seeing something that just wasn't there.
We laughed it off and moved on with life.
A while later I was having health problems, and it turned out that I was suffering from papilledema (basically swelling of the optic nerves) for reasons I'm not going to get into. But that became severe enough that it resulted in parts of my visual field being lost and my color vision worsening.
There was a point in time where I could close one eye and then the other, and the colors I saw with my right eye were markedly faded.
After a lot of treatment, some of my visual field was restored and my color vision improved. I was colorblind before this and after this but the degree and severity changed.
A lot of people don't know much about colorblindness. They don't know that there are different forms. That it isn't just "Yes color" or "No color". They don't know that all of those forms have different degrees.
And if you don't suffer from colorblindness, you hardly ever think about it.
Aromanticism and asexuality are a lot like that. You often don't realize that everyone else really is experiencing something that you aren't. And like colorblindness, it's not a yes or no question. And like colorblindness, everyone assumes you can see color.
I'm demiromantic and asexual. I've had romantic feelings for people before. I can count them on one hand and have fingers left over. It's extremely rare for me and only occurs with people I've known for a long time and already formed a bond with.
I don't feel sexual attraction for other people, but I'm also not sex repulsed. I've done sexual things and enjoyed them, but it's all just physiological responses, and I don't seek those experiences out. It's not worth the cleanup imo. I don't get enough out of it.
I didn't really realize I was asexual until I was in my early 20's. And I didn't realize that I was on the aro-spectrum until my late 20's.
There's no timeline for a lot of this, and your orientation and awareness of it can evolve and change over time for reasons that are beyond your control.
And aro-spec and ace-spec people vary WIDELY.
Just like the different forms and degrees of colorblindness.
And just like colorblindness, you might not even realize you're colorblind until it hits you in the face like a brick.
You know, whatever comes first.