"You're such a nerd!"
"That's so nerdy!"
Whether you have been on the giving or receiving end of those statements — or just a witness — have you ever wondered why this concept even exists... and why some people feel compelled to turn it into a slur?
Clearly, I lot of people over the years have thought I was a nerd.
Seems to have something to do with actually liking to think and occasionally use my brain, as opposed to just living in a non-stop adrenaline laden rush off the nearest cliff without a thought for my own — or anyone else's — safety or well-being.
The fact that I actually enjoy writing is evidently also pretty nerdy.
So is the fact that I think through my actions and the potential consequences of them, before just blindly jumping into something.
Much of the time, the best way to define a thing is actually to try to define what that thing is not.
I was always a nerd because I did not subscribe to "being cool" as a social currency I cared about. Ironically, I felt that people who were "posers," always focusing on portraying some outward image to impress were singularly UN-cool.
But I carried a very different yardstick from the majority of my peers.
When I look back on my allegedly "awkward" years, I realize that much of the nerdiness ascribed to me was on account being broadly indifferent towards the whole issue of popularity and cliques that so dominate a certain period of the growing up process.
But I generally defied many of the standard "boxes," being 6'4" (193cm) tall and athletic and not being your typical "gamer type" nor deeply stuck down inside sci-fi and fantasy comic books.
In some ways, I think I was perceived to be a nerd because I did mostly what interested me, rather than what might have been "popular" or "trendy."
Again, it's mysterious in the sense that we allegedly value "independence," but when someone embodies such a characteristic we feel the need to take it apart.
Maybe we are ultimately dealing with the fear of anything different, but isn't everything ultimately "different," in it's own way? It's all a matter of who we ask...
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Created at 2025.03.23 23:50 PDT
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