I think it was 2014 or 2015 where someone suggested to me that I might be aro. either I misheard it or they mispronounced it, but I thought "what? aromatic? what's that supposed to mean?" and kinda dismissed it.

a bit later, maybe also 2016, I stumbled upon the term asexuality. and I found myself in there as well. to me, it was less "omg, I'm not broken!" but more "ah, that's the word for it". I was already kind of aware of my non-existant level of attraction and desire to look for a relationship. I'm sex repulsed, so that made asexuality rather clear.

in terms of being aromantic: I never kissed, hugged or cuddled with the teenage girlfriend I had (into which relationship my mother kinda coerced me into. not out of bad faith, though. I had almost no friends, and she just wanted me to encourage to feel romantic love toward someone and experience how awesome it's supposed to feel)

so, some years later, I also stumbled upon the aro label. even though I knew it was applicable, I didn't really vibe with it for quite some time. maybe because I my sex repulsion made my asexuality a lot clearer and significant than my (I guess) romance indifference.

Today, I've embraced both labels. I'm glad to have found them, because it opened up a world for me to find other like-minded people online (I'm not aware of anyone offline being aro or ace) to share discussions and memes with.

the a-spec community is/was one of the last things I regularly returned to reddit for, if this community finally picks up some steam, I might be able to stay here for good. :)