Yay!

[ensignpavel]

I had a great experience yesterday. I teach at a public high school so Valentine's Day is usually a horrible day - there are giant stuffed animals, chocolate, and flowers everywhere and I am aromantic as well as asexual, so I find it all a bit grating

Comments

[widsidh]

Lovely story!
Like torylltales, I think that teenagers are probably the best group to explain this to; they are just finding out about the whole sexuality thing in all its facets and in my experience can be very open-mindedly curious.

Personally, I tend to ignore Valentine's Day, but that is probably easier for me because it wasn't a big thing when I was young, and now in my workplace it is mostly a personal thing that is not much talked about except casually (there are not many couples who both work in my office).

...and of course I have absolutely no objections to the availability of cut-price leftover chocolates in shops afterwards :-)

[mishaphappens]

Wow, that's amazing and incredibly brave of you! I would never be able to tell my students this simply because they ARE in the crusty old man stereotypes. It sounds like you work in a very welcoming environment!

[run_atreyu]

This is actually lovely to hear. I had something somewhat similarly surprising happen. Last week in New Zealand we passed the marriage equality bill which enables queer people to marry (we'd had civil unions, but this was the last legal hurdle to full equality). I was very emotional and jittery all day leading into the reading of the bill (and ultimate passing - expected, but you never know until it's official!) that night. I was at work and I work in IT - very male dominated and therefore more sexist/homophobic etc than is the norm in the business world. I was passing through the kitchen and guy #1 (my desk buddy, and I do get on very well with him even though he is a VERY stereotypical macho guy) was talking to guy #2. Both are very bloke-y, very dudebro. Even though they're both great guys I don't exactly expect super progressive attitudes. This is the conversation I heard

[ensignpavel]

That is awesome!