Benjamin Betts

1/29/2017

Prof. Intawiwat

ENG 111_128

This I Believe Essay

Geek-chic

As a nerd, it is hard not to feel ostracized. We all aspire to be sexy, smart, and suave

individuals, but it is not often we seek edification from our friends. Intellectual insecurity

permeates every facet of our society. I would worry about calling myself attractive just as much

as I would smart for fear of how it would come across. One might mistake nerds as popular

given todays pop culture where geeks and dorks are heroes of success despite social

awkwardness or deviancy. No matter how popular Game of Thrones, or Star Wars, or Iron Man

becomes it will always be because it is entertaining, not because it educational. I will never talk

to my peers about Pascals wager, or endosymbiosis, or the Plantagenets.

I only had four friends growing up. I had tentative relationships with each of them and

gave up on friendship altogether by middle school. I remembered being always very different. I

hardly ever talked to people and I never watched the same shows or listened to the same music as

my classmates. It is not as though I did not try to make friends. I just never found anyone else

who shared my uncommon interests. Even in high school, taking advanced placement classes
with honor students who were in theatre and band, I was too boring to ever hope to become

accepted.

The hit TV show The Big Bang Theory features several classic nerds who have

academic jobs at a college and are zealous comic book collectors. Amidst all the jokes and

references made to the shows humor, I cannot ever remember hearing someone talk about the

math theorems mentioned, outside of my math, class by the teacher. The main actress Mayim

Bialik is one of the main characters and portrays a neuroscientist. She has a Ph. D. in

neuroscience. That does not come up in her interviews unless she brings it up. She mentioned in

a personal video, We show characters that grow up to still be left out. That is that sad truth

every nerd has to face on a day to day basis. Because even if geek is the new chic, nerds will

never be cool.

I remember the time I met Harrison. He snored in my math class and was as socially

adept as I was. When we talked, we did something neither of us was used to: we spoke with

rapport. We would immediately dive into deciding on the days topic of conversation until we

found something we disagreed on. Then we would argue intensely until different classes

separated us. Arguments between nerds are more intense and satisfying than most everything in

life. We would always end our arguments out of breath, smiling, and with a thank you. When was

the last time you ended an argument with thank you?

 I met one other nerd in high school. His name was Julian and he was not as bad of a

nerd as Harrison but we could talk about Nirvana and it is not the band, we argued about passport

laws at 4 in the morning, and I wrote him a thousand-word essay in response to a random

Facebook post and he read the whole thing. We still argue about politics, economics, and religion

and call ourselves friends because of it. Every fellow nerd you meet is special because it is a rare

moment where you get to share that special part of you that makes up the majority of your being

but the minority of what others know or care about you.

I can start a conversation about Star Wars with most anyone nowadays simply by wearing

the appropriate t-shirt and finding someone in the mood to talk. I could never bring up the ways

it changed the American film industry or the incorrect political symbolism, not if I wanted to talk

to that person again. I am a nerd. My Youtube and Reddit pages are almost entirely educational, I

prefer to read about medieval economic demography than sports, listen to lectures on the

American Revolution by Yale than Taylor Swift, and would rather talk about why a celebrity is

famous in terms of psychology than scandal. It is rare I find someone who also likes those things

or at least not be vocal in their disdain for discussing such topics.

Thinking is hard. It takes a lot of calories and challenges our pride. It does not make us

rich or sexy or make most laugh. Learning is not exactly fun and it is the reason I do not go to

parties and ca not partake in small talk. The internet has been a godsend for nerds. The internet

provides a whole world of information at your fingertips, like-minded individuals from around

the globe, and Bill Gates as its hero. It is a place where the discovery channel regularly goes viral
with just someone explaining silica based life or mars colonization strategies. While I watch their

every video, which is one per day, I do not hear other people bring it up in casual conversation or

know anyone I would expect to have even seen it or care for such things.

No matter how much the internet or superheroes become a part of daily life, I will never

learn or even more scandalous teach in casual conversation and it is a part of me I must hide until

I know someone well and trust them. It is something society teaches me I ought to be ashamed of

and often hear rooms in agreement over how experts are ruining our lives. Learning in polite

company, well that is just a fairy tale.