I guess if this is the aromantic thread, I'm curious: how long did it take people to figure out they're aromantic? I realized I was queer at like 12 but it took till my 30s to realize I was aromantic, maybe cause I didn't know that was a thing until then and I thought I was just, like, failing to live up to my responsibility to find myself a relationship
Took me until I was, I believe, 16 despite discovering that both aromanticism and asexuality were a thing a long, long time prior, because it was only then that I realized you can be aromantic without being asexual. When I was younger I thought I was ace + bi or something for a bit, but that felt really, really off.
I was never really interested in that kind of stuff (boy/girlfriends, sex), but I didn't have a word for it, it knew of other people who felt similarly until I was at a Pride Parade and was given a flier. Thinking "this is probably an add, but I'll read it anyway" I for the first time read about aces, and later read about aros aswell. So I learned about it in my early 20's.
Greetings!
I'm not just an aromantic, I'm also an ace (asexual) and non-binary (agender).
Where I live, self-identities like these are seen as being weird and unusual. For example, usin as a pronoun will make people think that you can't speak English.
Growing up, I had never thought sexuality and gender-identity to be in the form of a spectrum. Funnily enough, It was only because of this little game, called Undertale, did I get to know about these gender and sexual identities.
So yeah, thank you Undertale for helping me discover my true identity. Truly one of the best things in my life.
I had trouble following this thread for a bit because I thought it said "aromatic" and expected people to start talking about their favorite colognes, perfumes and smells like bakeries and other scented things.