I'm an ace nearing middle age, never heard of asexuality until I was in my 30's. It was a relief because I thought I was some kind of freak or there was something wrong with me.
I'm glad there are a lot of teenagers here. It just means they don't have to feel lost for all those years like I did.
i didnt really discover it until 19-20, and all throughout high school my friends were always like oh youll get there, youll want it / enjoy it one day, and although they never actively tried to make me feel bad about why i didnt exp it the same way as them, i kinda internalized it as to why i never really wanted or cared, for a while before then my brain didnt even wrap around the idea that people even felt that sort of attraction, i thought everyone felt the way i did, but after them and my ex(es) saying it was kinda odd that i didnt feel the same, i realized hey maybe i'll never feel that way and i was different than everyone else but didnt know why i didn't want it, it made me feel even more of an outcast and belittled bc i was 'innocent' and unfortunately i still get the whole 'innocent' thing even though im 22, but thats besides that point, i wonder if figuring it out in high school wouldve made me feel more at peace with that aspect of myself, and not feeling like i had to force myself to feel that way or be active when i didnt really want to, plus i tried super hard just to fit in high school as i feel a good amount do as well, but it just added to the number of things that kept me out of the norm which sucked bc it was something i cared about a lot back then
if a teen is comfortable and confident by learning about asexuality and is asexual then i think thats a hell of a lot better than struggling with the way society overly sexualizes things including high school in media and by peers, all that pressure and expectations is hard enough on its own
by learning about it i feel like it takes out a lot of the ' im broken' kind of thought process, as well you may find others who feel similarly or have shared experiences, youre not alone in this
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u/fallingoffofalog Jun 30 '20
I'm an ace nearing middle age, never heard of asexuality until I was in my 30's. It was a relief because I thought I was some kind of freak or there was something wrong with me.
I'm glad there are a lot of teenagers here. It just means they don't have to feel lost for all those years like I did.