Updated from an earlier post:
Hello All,
I am a NERD. There, I said it. For most of you, this isn't a shocker, but for me this is something that I have just come to grips with and have become very proud of. Nerds are something that people are taught to think of in a bad fashion. They are portrayed as people living in their parent's basements, with broken glasses, a collection of comic books, and living with an unhealthy obsession instead of trying out the real world. They have jobs in IT, and have a high opinion of themselves, and a low opinion of others who make fun of their world or aren't as smart as they are. They are often painfully shy and can't function outside of a very small circle of friends and trusted family members. They often live a very lonely life and will be the butt of many jokes.
Nerds come in different forms if that means they love sports, animals, plants, running, surfing, making cakes, knitting, whatever you can come up with. Anything that makes you happy and you are so very passionate about that all the details matter makes you a nerd. I'm sure there are at least one or two things that came to your mind with that description, thank you very much John Green. Nerds look like anyone else, and you don't have to be enthralled with a book, movie, comic, TV show, or technology to be classified as a nerd. It is a double standard though. It is completely fine and acceptable to be a sports fan. There is no problem dressing up and going to a sports bar or to the game, getting tattoos of your favorite team, wearing their logo on your shirts and drinking your cup of coffee with it plastered on the front. It is encouraged to love your team. This my friend, is a nerd, and there is nothing wrong with that.
After you discover that you too are a nerd and it's not such a bad thing, it is important to be kind. I think every person has been enchanted with the object of their nerdom. They love it and know the details forwards and backwards. You want to share your love with the world because love is a positive, happy thing and we need more of that put out into the universe. But indivertibly, you find the cruelness, the people who will burst your bubble of happiness because you don't love the same thing the way they do, or you missed something, or you didn't see it or hear it the way that they took it. Suddenly, you find yourself a butt of a joke, again, and that stereotype comes creeping back into your mind. Sometimes, it's easy to slip into the role of the person correcting the others. The thing as, as a nerd we have been the underdogs. (Hey, get it, like my blog) We have been the quiet ones, the shy ones, the ones that sometimes can't make our own voice work so when we finally have a chance sometimes it comes out as cruelness. My rule of thumb when I catch myself being this mean type of nerd is to stop myself and apologize quickly. I've been the butt of jokes many times, and the person that everyone in the room ignores. To be able to speak up about something that you love takes a lot of courage and if you don't spend some much time judging you may actually learn something. You may even find a friend.
A true nerd is not only passionate about whatever makes them tick, that passion spills over into other areas of life. You will find that these people are truly some of the kindest people that you have ever met. You will find that they do for others and not always in a very obvious manner. You nerd it forward so to speak. For example, I love Doctor Who, very much. My cousin was diagnosed with cancer late last year and I became her care giver. It's been a tough road, but even being sick, she took me to the Doctor Who store here in Indy (Who North America) because she was thanking me for being her care giver.
However, she got too sick to stay and we had to leave. Fast forward several weeks later and our Masonic Family Members (this is nerdy too) got together to have a dinner and silent auction for my cousin to help pay for medial bills. Just because I love Doctor Who so much, I emailed the store and asked if they had any items to donate. These beautiful people never meeting me, and only going by my letter and how much I loved Doctor Who donated $500.00 worth of product to her auction. I was hoping for a poster. I am now helping them out with Indy PopCon because of them helping us out. All of this happened because of a love for Doctor Who, and people who's passion spilled over into other things. One day, I was having a terrible day at work and I took my break at Starbucks. I sat outside and was reading about Firefly. The nice elderly lady next to me saw the picture of Mal over my shoulder, we struck up a conversation, and my day instantly got better.
We, nerds being the underdogs, have made a community and in some cases have created a family steaming from what we are nerdy over. It's the Joss Whedon effect, we have big hearts. We have been left out, so once we find something that we love, we hold onto it with everything that we have. But we also want others to be able to enjoy that happiness and love so we do our best to nerd it forward. We dress up in our favorite comic book characters to go to blood drives, we get our fan groups together to do Relay for Life, or to knit Jane hats for cancer patients. We draw, sing, make art, play our musical instruments all inspired by what we love. That's just a small part. Sometimes it's the best thing in the world to see a nurse wearing a smock with Hello Kitty on it, and you happen to be huge Hello Kitty fan and that instantly calms you down. Being a nerd has taught me a very humble lesson, and I am going to do my best to make someone else smile, to make someone happy, to help someone out because a real nerd shares the love and happiness, not condones it. The most important thing I've learned is that being a nerd is truly not a four letter word. I am no longer ashamed or embarrassed to be a nerd, I embrace it!!!
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