Reflective Essay On Identity

My best overall trait to bring to the university community is that, by some people’s standards, my identity does not exist. In the highly sexualized world we currently inhabit, it is hard for people to understand asexuality, a term for describing someone who does not feel sexual attraction. I have had people tell me that having sex is a basic human need and that, even if I did somehow manage to not feel any sexual attraction, I must be broken. Being called broken is a common phrase heard within the asexual community. Sometimes we hear it so often that we begin to believe it. On top of that, if by some miracle someone has begun to understand, it is hard to convey that asexuals can still feel romantic attraction. And with romantic attraction
Unfortunately, that makes it an uphill battle for anyone non-binary. Non-binary is an umbrella term for anyone outside of the gender binary (including agender, bigender, genderfluid, etc.), so trying to tell people that I’m neither a boy nor a girl is difficult. One of my friends even said to me that non-binary people do not exist, albeit before I told her about the way I identify. I still haven't told her and most likely will not because we have been and still are good friends. She is not a bad person, just raised in a society where the gender binary is strictly enforced. However, when attending Virginia Tech, I intend to be straightforward and not hide myself or my identity. I want to be able to encourage people to learn and grow. I want to help them understand what all of these fairly new terms mean, but that takes a willing participant and getting people to acknowledge identities outside of the accepted is extremely difficult. For those unwilling, I hope to help them realize that a person's identity does not change just because they refuse to believe that someone could know who they are better than a complete