just wanna make sure I'm using the right term

[FindingMyself]

Before I begin, I would like to apologize to anyone who might become annoyed by this repetitive topic, but I'm just looking for understanding. I found out I was different late middle school early high school (I'm 18 now). All my friends were going crazy for relationships and I was perfectly fine being a loner. I've been in relationships, but mostly to get people to stop thinking I'm gay. I didn't really get anything out of them. Since finding AVEN, I've called myself an aromantic asexual. The thing is, very rarely....I will run into a girl that I can actually find attractive (personality wise). And I'm not against having sex, I'm just not sexually attracted. Do i fit under aromantic or is there another I fit in better?

[Faelights]

Hey Finding,

I usually don't use labels at all, but when I do, I personally call myself an "asexual panromantic". However, I still become attracted to people for things separate from romance, so I actually make a lot of distinctions between different attractions. For example, I may be asexual, but I still appreciate physical beauty, so I call that aesthetic attraction. I am also attracted to intelligence, so I have intellectual attraction as well... Stuff like that.

ANYWAY. To answer your question, just because you rarely find someone you feel romantically attracted to, doesn't mean that you're not CAPABLE of being attracted to someone romantically. Same with someone who is sexual, but only rarely feels the sexual attraction.

But in the end, whether or not the label of "aromantic" fits you is up to you. =P Different people seem to have different definitions of it; in fact, I've been talking in another thread where nleseul describes his definition of aromantic... his post is #34.

[Guest member25959]

There are also squishes in this community, where you can feel 'close' to people, but its more platonic really.

http://www.asexuality.org/wiki/index.php?title=Squish#Crushes_and_Squishes

A crush is a romantic attraction to someone, a desire for a romantic relationship of some kind, a desire that is possibly temporary in nature, possibly never to be acted upon. A squish is an aromantic crush, a desire for a platonic relationship with someone.

[andrew_w]

You could call yourself "gray-aromantic" if you like. That is how I identify (in my case, it is because I have never really experienced romantic attraction, but I believe that I am capable of experiencing it nonetheless - however, gray-aromantic could refer to anybody in between "romantic" and "aromantic", not only people like me).

[Relinquit]

Well there is also the term demiromantic, which you can't find on the aven wiki but that actually exist. You have to be careful though so you don't confuse squishes with crushes (which at least in my experience is kinda easy to do). But in the end we can't label you, only give you advice on what you might be able to identify as.

[FindingMyself]

i would just like to thank everyone for helping me! Thanks to you all, I understand a little more.