"In the end, that was the problem with romance. It was so easy to romanticize romance because it was everywhere. It was in music and on TV and in filtered Instagram photos. It was in the air, crisp and alive with fresh possibility. It was in falling leaves, crumbling wooden doorways, scuffed cobblestones and fields of dandelions. It was in the touch of hands, scrawled letters, crumpled sheets and the golden hour. A soft yawn, early morning laughter, shoes lined up together by the door. Eyes across a dance floor.
I could see it all, all the time, all around, but when I got closer, I found that nothing was there.
A mirage." - Loveless, Alice Oseman. pg. 200
"I felt like I was grieving. I was grieving this fake life, a fantasy future that I was never going to live.
I had no idea what my life would be like now. And that scared me. God, that scared me so, so much." - Loveless, Alice Oseman. pg. 234
Alice Oseman's Loveless remains one of the pieces of media closest to my heart. While the mc may experience nonromantic forms of love I do not, it is still the most I have ever felt seen in a piece of fiction. These two quotes here helped give me the language to describe things I have felt/experienced in coming to understand my aroace identity. The latter one is ultimately what led to me using grief and other darker affects in my writings about identity/being aro.

















