nerds

I have always been a huge nerd. Maybe I'm disillusioned, but I like to think I hide it fairly well.

In first and second grade, the kid I hung out with the most at lunch and recess was the smartest kid in class who enjoyed politics and shared my fascination for long, obscure vocabulary words. To this day, I think pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (which he taught me) is still the longest word I know. Last I heard, he went to Stanford.

It wasn't long before I realized that there weren't too many kids who could relate to someone who read the dictionary for fun. So, from middle school until high school, I decided to feign interest in boys, pop music, and the cast of 90210. When there was drama because one girl wore the same Girbaud shirt as another girl, I acted just as appalled as everyone else. With most of the guys I dated, I felt the need to dumb down because I got tired of bruising their egos with my big words.

Then I met this guy who, at first, appeared to be one of those guys I used to hate in high school: an arrogant jock. Then, slowly but surely, I found out he was a nerd in hiding as well. He wrote his first computer program at age five. He won a web design award in high school. He was even a mathlete! I gotta say - it kinda turned me on! As much as he would hate me for outing him even to this day (although I don't think it's a secret that he's brilliant), I think that, as opposite as we are, that is one thing that keeps us connected. We can revel in our nerdiness together.