#aro lifestyle

[arolution]

Your life isn't emptier for being aro. You're fully complete on your own and your aro experience is as rich as any other. Just do what makes you happy.

[arolution]

Do not let amatonormativity dictate your life. Resembling alloro people in some aspects of your lifestyle does not negate your aroness. It also doesn't mean you should change yourself or adjust your limits. Be aro in any way that makes sense to you. Express your aroness how it rings true to you. You're setting your own standards.

[arolution]

the world is full of love that's not romantic

a life without romantic love doesn't equal a loveless life

[arolution]

the future is bright for aros!

let's educate the world on aro experiences and the toxicity of amatonormativity! let's fight for a world that's just as welcoming of aros as it is of alloros!

[arolution]

24. Best part of being aro?

Oh nice. Just one thing? :p Hahah. Probably the feeling that I’m not narrowing down and focusing on just one aspect of interpersonal relationships the most. Hm but probably actually that I can appreciate a lot of things deeply and emotionally equally, and not be swayed around my romantic feelings that other things don’t influence me as deeply. For the record, I am not saying these are the #alloroexperiences -- I just feel that if I was alloro, I would probably get swayed a lot since I am a very sensitive and ‘romantic’ person. I romanticize and feel deeply about a lot of things. And I am glad that this aspect of me can be spread out evenly on a lot of ppl/things instead. 

((A ‘romantic’ aromantic? In my software? It’s more likely than you think.))

[arolution]

5, 23 and 17 for the Aro asks :)

damn, all great questions actually! have strong feelings on all of these!!

5) Are you romance-positive, romance-repulsed, or indifferent?

Oh boy, romance-repulsed. Romantic stuff used to be a super strong trigger for me. I am really working on myself to get rid of it and it’s getting better slowly. Cause, see, I do have some small capacity to feel romantic-y feelings (mostly vicariously) but it is super minute. That means that if I am faced with romantic relationships around me, someone feels that way about me or mostly when I see it portrayed in the media, it makes me feel eeeeempty, real fast. I have a big capacity for platonic feelings though. So I can tolerate and sometimes even enjoy when I see something rather friendship-like with some romantic overlap, but pure romance? Big depression trigger. I am working on not empathizing with the romantic situations and just observing them neutrally, not thinking about them too much... But it is still hard. 

17) How do you feel about sex/love songs?

This ties well to the previous question, too. Love songs specifically is something I always heard as just platonic love songs or very metaphorical songs. The very obvious pure romance ones I just totally ignored, because I didn’t understand it at all. Once I realized that a lot of what I considered to be these platonic love songs are generally romance love songs, it became my first big obvious romance repulsion (depression) trigger. Back then, it made me think that all I feel as strong platonic connection with people won’t ever be reciprocated to that extent and instead -- if it will be intense -- it will only translate into romantic feelings, which not only I did not have the capacity to feel but which also triggered my depressive episodes. ...so I’m not a fan of them, no, hahah. On the other hand though, as I said, I am working on it, so they are becoming less triggering, or I just decided I am gonna interpret them as I please and as it resonates with me. Sex songs, if I can divide them from the romance subtext enough or if it’s missing, I don’t mind (as an aroallo). Some, I actually enjoy.

23) What would you rather do/have instead of romance?

Now THAT is a great question. Since I never had it and never felt I needed it, I always had/did plenty of things instead of it. I never considered I should do romance stuff, never much occured to me because it felt empty and useless to me cause I’d have to fake it without actually feeling it. So, mostly what I would rather do is to hang out with friends and create something together, play games, drive around, talk about things over tea, dick around. Other than that, I’d rather talk to people online, share knowledge, discover new things, learn new things, do art, create. That’s the gist of it. I do genuinely enjoy connecting with people but rather on a mental and understanding level. That sums it up the best for me. I could go on for longer, but that would be just going into more detail. Generally, this is it.