My Nerd Credentials

So, tonight I completed one of the requirements I had promised to fulfill when I was accepted with qualifications into Nerd Society by watching the movie Labyrinth. First of all, let me just say it was awesome and I wish terribly that I had seen it as a kid. Jennifer Connelly would have totally been my nerd crush in middle school.

There were several nerd requirements I had to fulfill after I had applied for admission, such as reading the Lord of the Rings (check), learning to play chess (poorly ... but check) and other nerd-worthy games (Settlers of Catan record ... undefeated at 1-0 :) ), solving the Rubik's Cube (check), going through a classic rock phase (Led Zeppelin mostly), etc. Many of my peers seemed to be light years beyond me in their nerd experiences from childhood.

I think the real issue is that I was not born into nerd kind. In other words, I am a bit of a Muggle-born nerd if you will, or a Mudblood if you are discriminatory. In fact, though my father is an engineer, he seems to have been reasonably popular and athletic as a young man. My mother in particular seems to always make new friends easily. My Papa even played football for his admittedly small high school in Southeastern Oklahoma.

Still, as a kid somehow I found myself alone reading bird watching and star gazing books while sitting in my treehouse I had named "Nova Labs." My clothes never matched except for when I was extremely young and refused to wear anything but the color red. Even now I am wearing a t-shirt with a cardigan, khakis and tennis shoes. In elementary school, I remember reading pretty much every Beverly Cleary and joke book I could find. Once I brought Handel's Messiah to my 4th grade class as my favorite Christmas song. Needless to say we did not get very far into it before my class revolted. I always loved science, knew an endless supply of pointless trivia and managed to injure myself in almost every sporting endeavor I have ever pursued. At 14, upon being able to finally leave my street on a beat up tenspeed, I rode all over my small town often talking or singing to myself. Now, for a small town in Northern Oklahoma, a dude traveling on a bike might be rare but not unheard of, whereas a dude going all over town engaging himself in conversation was probably noticed. Finally, in high school I found others like me and began to understand what I was. In college, I was free to explore Nerd-dom in anyway I saw fit. I did yoga three times a week with my OU hat on backwards the whole time, experimented with various forms of facial hair, took drum lessons, participated in student government, read British literature and played so much minesweeper I had to delete it from my computer.

In the end, especially after being accepted to graduate school in math, it was really no question I would be admitted in the nerd ranks, but the nerd authorities thought my prerequisites looked weak. Sadly, this is kind of the story of my life. However, in the end I have found the resolve to overcome my lack of a proper preparation, usually by doing twice as much work as those around me to catch up. Hopefully at some point on something in my life, I will actually do so.