The lyric essay is a contemporary creative nonfiction form which combines qualities of poetry, essay, memoir, and research writing, while also breaking the boundaries of the traditional five-paragraph essay.\u00a0 This unit we were tasked with writing a lyrical essay based on someone else’s experience. Mine detailed the experience of an anonymous aromantic friend.<\/p>\n
“Even as a child, you sensed a glass wall between yourself and others.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One evening, when you were playing with friends, the topic of crushes came up. They seemed to have their own, but you don\u2019t remember the names.<\/span><\/p>\n
You look at the TV, there is a boy, you thought he was 13, he had freckles and brown curly hair.<\/span><\/p>\n
In an attempt to break through the glass,<\/span><\/p>\n
you turn to your friends and claim that boy as your crush.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
You didn\u2019t break the glass,<\/span><\/p>\n
for you didn\u2019t know what a crush was.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You wanted to, though.<\/span><\/p>\n
The other side seemed appealing.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So, you asked questions.<\/span><\/p>\n
You peered through the glass.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know if you like someone?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cYour heart beats faster and you feel happy\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know if you like someone?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel a connection to that person and feel like yourself around them\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know if you like someone?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t know either. Too many answers thicken the glass.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Like describing color to a blind person, they explained themselves to you.<\/span><\/p>\n
So you stop asking, no, you stop wondering.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You accept your place behind the glass.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You like your place \u2013 it doesn\u2019t feel foreign, like the other side”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here is the transcript I used to create my essay:<\/p>\n
The Aromantic Experience (October 12th, 2019)<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Me: When did you realize you were aro?<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anon: Sometime between 8th grade and freshman year, I don’t exactly remember when.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Me: What made you realize?<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anon: I had identified with stuff like demiromantic since middle school, but I slowly realized that I wasn’t really romantically interested in anyone, as I had never had a crush and I didn’t really have and \u201cideal partner\u201d. I\u2019ve always liked the idea of love but it took me a while to get that I wasn’t into love when it was applied to me if that makes any sense.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Me: It does, yeah. How do you feel about being aro?<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anon: Well, I don’t know, it really depends honestly. I\u2019ve grown to like my experience now, but when I first realized I was pretty sad, romantic love is this glamorized thing in our society and not being able to partake in that made me a bit scared and stuff.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Me: Could you elaborate on that?<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anon: Yeah, like, the ideal life we\u2019re taught to have is like that white picket fence American dream, but being aro doesn’t really fit into that does it. Like finding your \u201csoulmate\u201d is such a bit emphasis for so many people, and we aren’t really taught about an option outside of that. I didn\u2019t and still don’t really know what my end goal is since it\u2019s not romance. I know I should be grateful because it gives me this sense of freedom and stuff, but it\u2019s just kind of scary and lonely, not knowing where my life will or even should end up at.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Me: Oh wow, yeah I get that. To kind of transition more into the negative stuff I guess, have people made fun of you or anything for being aro?<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anon: I guess? No one\u2019s ever pointed a finger at me and laughed at me, I\u2019d honestly laugh back at them if they did that but, I have had people say some rude things, both directly and indirectly. I\u2019ve had people say I\u2019m too young to know, people call my life sad, and stuff. One person I used to be friends with said she wouldn’t let me be aro when I came out to her. I get that came from a place of kindness and stuff but it just sounded pretty offensive. Online, I\u2019ve seen some articles describing people who don’t get romantic inclinations as \u201cnot evil\u201d like it was a common assumption to just think people like me are evil. Aromanticism is also classified by some as one of those \u201csnowflake\u201d fake orientations, which feels pretty stupid, but people are surprisingly adamant about it. There\u2019s more stuff but I just can’t remember it all right now haha.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Me: Yeah that\u2019s enough don’t worry. Since being aro is a pretty unique experience, do you feel yourself being in a weird spot in society?<\/span><\/p>\n
Anon: Yeah, definitely. I get a different perspective on many things most people are biased towards toward. I also just generally feel like an alien in many ways, like a lot of my priorities are not the same as other peoples, I guess.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Me: Ok looks like that\u2019s all the time we have right now, thank you for willing to be interviewed and stuff.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The lyric essay is a contemporary creative nonfiction form which combines qualities of poetry, essay, memoir, and research writing, while also breaking the boundaries of the traditional five-paragraph essay.\u00a0 This unit we were tasked with writing a lyrical essay based on someone else’s experience. Mine detailed the experience of an anonymous aromantic friend. “Even as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":51,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-400","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HannaS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HannaS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HannaS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HannaS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HannaS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HannaS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HannaS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/400\/revisions\/484"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HannaS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freestyleacademy.rocks\/~HannaS\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}