Embrace the Geek

Last week, I went to the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo for the first time. It was, in fact, my first real “con” experience, at least of that scale. I’d contemplated going before, but when they announced a full reunion of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation I was finally sucked in.

It feels appropriate that it was TNG that got me to a con, since that show was really my first foray into geek culture. These days, I sort of dabble in the pool of full-fledged fan geekery; I don’t read comic books or dress up for movie premieres (except for the brown coat I wore to the opening night of Serenity), but I will get fanatically attached to certain TV shows and am pretty literate in internet geekery.[[MORE]]The con itself was really fun, although it was absolutely mobbed with people and there were a lot of folks who had pretty lousy experiences thanks to the crowds. I was mostly in it for the panels, and I saw some great ones aside from the full TNG reunion - the Battlestar Galactica panel was so good that it made me completely reassess my feelings about how that show ended, and now I’m really dying to rewatch the whole thing. 

Wil Wheaton’s panel was another highlight; he answered my question (about how TNG would have been different if it had been on in the age of the internet, given how much fandom has changed as a result of the web), and gave NaNoWriMo an off-handed endorsement. Someone else asked him what advice he’d give to people who want to write more, and since I am loud and prone to inappropriateness, I yelled out “Do NaNoWriMo!” He immediately responded with, “that’s actually not bad advice,” so I’m claiming this as an official celebrity endorsement. 

But leaving aside the great and nerdy panels, what really struck me was the diversity of the crowds. Pretty much everyone there was some kind of geek or other, but every one of them was embracing their geekery. And it made me realise that, really, everyone is a geek about something if you look at it a certain way.

One of the definitions of geek is “a person with an eccentric devotion to a particular interest.” A nerd can be defined as “an intelligent, single-minded expert in a particular technical discipline or profession.” Who isn’t devoted to any interests? A boring person, that’s who. Who doesn’t want to be an intelligent expert? Nobody I want to hang out with.

John Green’s got a great quote on the subject: “When people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness.’”

Maybe you’re a geek about an obscure science fiction show from the ’90s. Maybe you’re a geek about a sports team. (That one is much more mainstream acceptable, for reasons I’ve never really understood. I’m a pretty die-hard hockey fan, so how come that’s allowed to be cool but being a die-hard video game fan makes you a geek?) Maybe you’re a nerd about writing a 50,000 word novel every November. Whatever you’re a geek or a nerd about, I’m pretty confident in guaranteeing that there’s someone else out there who’s a geek about the same thing. (If you’re a nerd about writing a novel every November, I am 100% confident in guaranteeing this.)

Embrace your nerdy geekiness, my friends. Shout it from the rooftops. If someone tries to call you a geek or a nerd, tell them you refuse to apologize for your enthusiasm about the miracle of human consciousness. Go out into the world and find your like-minded geeky friends, and let’s see what we can do to make the world a happier, nerdier place.

There’s no better place to start than here. What are you geeky about?

-Sarah

(Photo of the TNG reunion by Flickr user Ricky Leong.)