i'm nobody!

It's definitely true that there was a good amount of "this isn't feasible" that prompted my little ~aromantic awakening~ in college. Social anxiety wasn't really the issue so much as my introversion and the fact that I'm easily bothered by other people, and my realization that the fictional (and tolerable) relationships I could imagine in my head did not actually translate to reality and how people actually behave. So for me, it was less "THIS IS WHOLESALE BOGUS" and more "Well, I can see the appeal but I don't think I'd actually want to involve myself with someone else that way because what I want doesn't exist."