I was a strange kid growing up. I was a geek from nearly the beginning, thanks in part to the fact that I had a geek for a dad. I went through a very brief period in my pre-teen years that I disdained geeky things.
But in my late middle school / early high school years, I began to embrace my inner geek. I had a picture of the crew of Star Trek:TNG in my locker in high school. I went to Star Trek cons, and was very open with the fact that I was a band and theater geek. My favorite singer in high school was Frank Sinatra, which tells you I wasn't really into popular culture.
This made my high school years a bit difficult, but I mostly ignored the teasing. Though I was physically abused in school for a while, which honestly made my life a living hell. But I weathered it all, figuring college would be better.
College was infinitely better. Finally, being a geek was not a bad thing. Though the first year of college was more of the same. My roommates were major party-ers, and I wasn't. It lead to some rough times, but thankfully it was just one year.
After college, I continued to embrace my geek-hood, since it really is a part of me. My husband is a fellow geek, and now we of course have Emily as our little geek-let. I never really understood the whole conforming / changing who you are thing. It was just not something I really felt like I needed to do.
As a result, I'm pretty happy with who I am. I'm proud to be a geek, a mom, a wife. True, if I had to do it over again, I may have done some things different, but I'm glad I never felt that I needed to change myself into something I'm not.
Yep, realizing how big of a geek I was was the first step on the road to happiness. :D
ReplyDeleteI made it through high school feeling lost. It's not so much that I was always trying conform, I think that I was just using the pop culture stuff as a measure of what I should be. It took a very long time for me to figure out that I was a geek.
ReplyDeleteProps to you for being who you are!
Well, growing up my sister was big into conforming, and I just didn't get it at all *L*
ReplyDeleteBut then, I was also pretty clueless as a kid.
You go girl! I spent all of high school trying to be accepted - didn't work. Then in college I *finally* allowed myself to be comfortable in my skin. Now, I'm the only she-geek in my current circle of girlfriends (remember I told you my bestie moved) and I have to resist the urge to try and conform again.
ReplyDelete*hugs* I had a hard time making girlfriends after moving to NC, and after my one geek girlfriend moved away. I'm thankful for my best friend (though she is also moving away *L*) and the other geek friends I have in other places too :)
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