When people think of asexuals, they think of people who aren't attracted to anything. In some cases that is true, but there are a few different types of asexuality where certain preferences can be sexual.

Let's educate you a little today!

To start, aromantic individuals are those who do not form romantic feelings/relationships at all, and have no desire to. The strongest relationship you can have with an aromantic person is friendship.

We also have heteroromantic and homoromantic individuals who want to form romantic bonds with a significant other, whether it be of the same sex (homoromantic), or of the opposite sex (heteroromantic). However, those who are heteroromantic or homoromantic do not necessarily find their partners to be sexually attractive. This is also common in heterosexuals and homosexuals (there's just a different title for it).

Then we have grey-A/gray-A (it's all based on the preference of the spelling) asexuals who can experience sexual attraction but may also have a low sex drive. Some grey-A asexuals even enjoy sex, but that's usually under a very limited and selective circumstance.

Lastly, we have demisexuality, the type of asexuality that I identify with. Demisexuals do not hold any sexual attraction to others unless a strong romantic bond is formed. However, demisexuals can be attracted to someone's appearance, their personality, and even what they're wearing.

There are a few more branches of asexuality that I have not covered that you can easily find and learn more about on the world-wide web (just Google search "types of asexuality.")

Okay, now I'm focusing on my life and my demisexuality.

When people ask me my sexual orientation, I often say that I'm asexual and explain why, or I just say that I'm simply heterosexual, or "straight." I didn't feel like it was possible for me to be asexual and also find males attractive until I did some research.

I believe that my asexuality stemmed from sexual assault that I experienced a sickening number of times from boyfriends while I was in high school. I was the only person I knew that went to college being a virgin, and I was always the "virgin sacrifice" in every joke. Even before I had started dating, I never had the desire to do anything sexual with anyone. I actually found the topic and idea of sex to be scary.

It took 18 years for the word "sex" to really frighten me. It was after a traumatizing sexual assault that took place during my freshman year of college, 14 hours away from home. After that assault, which was the reason I decided to leave school the day after the second semester started, I would not let anyone touch me or come within two feet of me.

If there were sex scenes on a television show or in a film, I would either change the channel or look away.

When people openly talked about their sex lives, I tuned them out.

Fast forward past me ending a toxic relationship with my first love three months after the assault at college, when my mind changed completely. Everything became platonic. Kissing, hand holding, hugging, cuddling (which I never actually did, but if it were to happen it would've been platonic), the whole nine yards. Still, there was no sex drive (if anything it's in the negatives) or sexual attraction whatsoever.

Now in the present day, I still find men attractive, but not sexually attractive. I'm still uncomfortable about the idea of sex, but I am able to handle conversations with my friends about their sex lives. I even got a job at a retail store that also sells novelty items this past December. Need I say more?

It's simple, really. I would like to fall in love one day and get married, and if my bond with my significant other is strong, then I'll go that extra mile for them. It's not like I'm making a sacrifice or anything of that sort, but just doing something that "normal" people do when they (in less than 50% of cases) love each other.

Yes, I am asexual. Yes, I still find people attractive.