Still Just a Geek Quotes

“I need to rely upon myself, trust myself, love myself and not put my happiness and sadness into the hands of others.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“On that day, the library was transformed from a confusing and intimidating collection of books into a thousand different portals through time and space to fantastic worlds for me to explore.*”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“There is no reason to feel embarrassed when you reach out to a professional for help, because the person you are reaching out to is someone who has literally dedicated their life to helping people like us live, instead of merely exist.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“So as you get older, and as your knowledge grows, don’t ever stop learning. Stay curious.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“When I look back on most of my life, it breaks my heart that when my brain was unloading an endless pile of what ifs on me, it never asked, “What if I go do this thing that I want to do, and it’s . . . fun? What if I enjoy myself, and I’m really glad I went?”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“And it’s not like I never reached out for help. I did! I just didn’t know what questions to ask, and the adults I was close to didn’t know what answers to give.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“The defining characteristic of [being a nerd] is that we love things.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“The difference is a matter of shifts in society . . . and in me. These shifts aren’t meant to be an excuse of any kind. I’m happy for the shifts, as it has brought (at least some of) the world to a more enlightened place. A place just a touch freer of bigotry and hatred, including within myself.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“So don't you ever let a person make you feel bad because you love something they decided is only for nerds.
You're loving a thing that's for you>.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“If there’s a red dwarf in Canis Major, and it isn’t named Clifford, I’m going to say a swear word.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“Nobody gets to tell you what your dream is or is not. Whatever your dream is, you deserve to realize it.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“And it makes you feel really, really alone. Like, you are the only person who has ever felt this way, and the only person who ever will feel this way, and if you just tried a little harder, you wouldn’t feel this way. But you do feel this way, because you’re alone. Yep, you’re alone and nobody can help you. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprised if you’re the only one with this infernal internal monologue. Look around you—nobody else seems to have this problem. It’s just you. But that’s not true.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“I read about a study, which indicated that highly intelligent people tend to have generalized anxiety and other mental health issues at a rate that is significantly greater than a control group.*”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“if you suspect that you have a mental illness, there is no reason to be ashamed, or embarrassed, and most importantly, you do not need to be afraid. You do not need to suffer. There is nothing noble in suffering, and there is nothing shameful or weak in asking for help.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“It’s painful to recall, but I’m not ashamed, because all those thoughts—which I thankfully don’t have anymore, thanks to medical science and therapy—were not my fault any more than the allergies that clog my sinuses when the trees in my neighborhood start doin’ it every spring are my fault. It’s just part of who I am. It’s part of how my brain is wired, and because I know that, I can medically treat it, instead of being a victim of it.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“One of the best things I’ve ever done was take a close look at my mental health and accept that I wasn’t doing fine.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“I live with depression and anxiety.* I take medication, I practice meditation and CBT, and I see a therapist regularly to help me handle it. It doesn’t control my life, and it doesn’t define my life . . . but when it’s really bad, it sure feels like it does. When it’s really bad, it feels like it is the only thing in my entire life, the Alpha and Omega of my existence.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“I don’t know what the future of my career holds, but I know that whatever is over the horizon, the road I’ve traveled to get here is like those interstates in Texas: everything can look the same, and it can feel like you’re not going anywhere, until you suddenly get where you’re going and realize that you’ve been traveling for a long time.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“I remember a woman, speaking at a ceremony when Anne was given an award for National Women’s Health Week. She said, “women need to work in medical research, and in applied medicine, because too many men treat women’s bodies like they are just men’s bodies with female parts, but our bodies are fundamentally different and need to be treated that way.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“Like all the other things I’d agonized over, the process of making the decision took more time and energy—and was more painful and scary—than the result.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“You’ve got to stop worrying about a choice you made fifteen years ago, because you can’t change it.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“That includes the gross parts, which I am learning to accept (without condoning) through the words of the great Bob Ross: “You can’t have light without a little darkness.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“your dream is, you deserve to realize it.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“And this is why I believe that ART is an important part of a well-rounded education, not as an alternative to STEM education, but as a fundamental part of it. I want us to start putting ART into STEM, to make STEAM.*”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“What I mean is, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by your internal monologue, and the voice delivering it is no longer a friendly one—please—don’t be afraid to ask for help. One of the most insidious lies mental illness tells us is that asking for help, or taking medication to get better, means that we are weak. It means that we are a failure, and we somehow deserve to suffer. This. Is. Bullshit. You don’t deserve to suffer. You are not weak. You are not a failure. Your brain, like mine, needs help to keep its profoundly complicated machinery working. Depression lies, and when it tells you these lies, you can look right back into its stupid face and say, “Shut up. Wil Wheaton told me that it’s okay to get help, and he pretended to live in outer space, so he outranks you.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“YOU must ask for help when anxiety makes you feel out of control. Because we need you. We need you to be well and whole and taking care of yourselves. I know that the prevailing rise of anti-intellectualism that’s plaguing our world right now can be unbelievably depressing.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“Because my brain is broken. There’s all sorts of interesting medical and neurochemical reasons for it, and I’ve learned everything I can about them,* but knowing all of that isn’t enough to make my brain magically start processing serotonin and norepinephrine and dopamine in a balanced way,”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“Look around you—everyone here has their own internal monologue.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“And if everything is geeky, maybe nothing is geeky, and that means that gate-keeping in geek and nerd culture is a pointless waste of time.”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir

“I think about what it means to be a geek or a nerd or a dweeb or a dork or a doofus or a weirdo,* I think that it means that we love things in a uniquely enthusiastic way. And we get so excited about the things that we love, that we can’t help but share them with other people,”
― Wil Wheaton, Still Just a Geek: An Annotated Memoir