I am fiercely proud of the neediness that has reigned supreme since the beginning for me. I think that the nerd in me came straight from my dad. I was born during the time when sci-fi was really big in television, even the wonderful reruns from ages past. My dad and I LOVED Star Trek! Every Saturday afternoon we’d watch the crew deal with salt or lava monsters, tribbles or Klingons. I actually loved the day glow colors, costumes, music and space! You can imagine how THRILLED I was as a teenager to experience George Lucas’ vision when Star Wars came out. And I kept a huge poster of the mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind on my wall throughout my younger years. Fell in love with E.T. in the 80’s because he was so odd, you couldn’t help but love him.

And we also loved the creepiness of Kolchak: The Nightstalker (the TV show, not the killer lol). I kept thinking how brave brave Darren McGavin was. Of course we were big fans of The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits….they were all Segway ‘drugs’ to my deep love of the X-Files in later life. I was a HUGE fan of a little known show Leonard Nimoy hosted called ‘In Search Of…’, that investigated ‘every sci-fi, paranormal and new age thing you could imagine. As well as every awesome show the SyFy channel ever put out.

That love hasn’t lessened at all in my later life. As a matter of fact, I see every comic book hero movie I can and actually embrace all of the newest shows that expand the Star Wars universe, as they come out. Conventions are something I’ve always wanted to go to, but could never afford it. But I tell myself that might not be a bad thing, since I’d probably see a billion things I would want to own, but couldn’t afford either. So I’m content with watching for cos players posts and reporters at the major conventions.

To me though, nerdism, is so much more than all this. It’s my insatiable love of science, archeology, chemistry, even physics. It is an endless curiosity of our world and how we fit in. How it began, where it is going and how we are going to get there. It’s robotics and technology….all the way to the other end of ancient history.

Now, NONE of these things made me cool or acceptable, when I was young. If anything, most people kept their loves of these things to themselves, because there was a social stigma associated with them. I didn’t care, but I was pretty shy during my school years. And as is the case, like-minded people find each other. So was the case for me. I had a small close knit group of friends, and we did our celebrations within our bedrooms during sleep overs and when we would hang out together to see the movies we geeked out about or shows we loved.

I guess if I could tell my younger self if the ridicule or isolation associated with nerdism would ever change….I would tell her a resounding “YES!” and to keep on shining! Because one day those who could see our love and joy for these things, will be jealous of our ability to embrace all things nerdy. Embrace whatever makes you giddy and silly with excitement. Allow that joy into your heart because THAT is the key to finding balance in life.