So, I don’t intend to wade into aro-ace discourse here. My opinions are my own and I’m afraid of Tumblr.
But yesterday I had this really cool metaphor finally finish working its way through my head, and that is: Romantic relationships are to Friendships as Petals are to Leaves.
I remember back in 9th grade biology, learning that petals are just hyper-specialized leaves. They develop with different pigments and shapes and so forth, to serve a different purpose in the plant, but they’re the same homologous structure as a leaf.
And that’s how I think I view romantic relationships. They’re like friendships, but hyper-specialized.
It’s hard to explain “what makes a relationship Romantic” when you take sex out of the equation. To the point that I do sometimes think I might be aromantic, or demi-romantic.
But I do very much appreciate the relationships that rise to the level of Romantic, so it’s not that it never happens! It’s just…I don’t know?
Just muddling through, trying to figure myself out. 😊
