We would like to invite any and all current college students or those who have graduated in the past year who identify on the asexual and/or aromantic spectrum to write a short reflection on the topic, “Origin Stories.” This is intended to be low-stress – you are not expected to write an entire blog post. Instead, we plan to create a single post combining the received submissions showing the diversity of perspectives present within our community. Your submission can be up to 300 words or another form of media such as a drawing.

This is our first time doing this, but we hope to make this a monthly event. We are inspired by the Carnival of Aces and the Carnival of Aros, which are monthly blogging carnivals, but we recognized that for many students, writing a submission to such an event can be intimidating and time-consuming. Thus, we hope that this event will allow similar self-reflection but with lower stakes.

How to submit

Please submit your written response to this form: https://forms.gle/P6cvh2kR6EN5bB5c6. If you want to submit another form of media, please email it to aace@smith.edu and note your college. The deadline for submissions is May 30, and the submissions will be posted anonymously on May 31.

Prompts

The following are meant to give you ideas for what you can write about, but you are not limited to these prompts! The topic is meant to be broad, so feel free to write about whatever you are inspired to write about.

• How did you first learn about asexuality and/or aromanticism?
• When did you first consider that you might be asexual and/or aromantic? When did you realize you were asexual and/or aromantic?
• What did you have to unlearn in the process of discovering, accepting, and claiming your identity as asexual and/or aromantic?
• Discuss your process of exploring possible labels for yourself.
• How was your process of discovering you are asexual/aromantic affected by your other identities or experiences?