On Nerdiness (BEDA 17)

I've been thinking a lot about the following John Green quotation leading up to and since the Con. I've also been thinking a lot about the Con because I feel like it recharged my perspective on a few things, but here's the quotation:

“Nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff…Nerds are allowed to loves stuff like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it!”

And thinking about the way nerds are allowed and supposed to be really really really excited about the things that they like is why the Con I went to this past weekend was so fantastic. Everybody there was super duper excited to be there and celebrate the things that they love, and the best part was getting to be around people who were just as excited about thesamethings as me. There was an unquestionable sense of belonging and acceptance there that came from the common ground of hyper-enthusiasm about our common fandoms, getting to meet the people responsible for such great media, and just seeing that we’re not alone.

That kind of enthusiasm and community makes me so happy, and I just want to go back to the Con. I wish every day could be as exciting, which is probably why I’m trying to get research funding that would enable me to go to a bunch of Cons for a summer to write my senior thesis. We’ll see if this actually works out, but with the changing social trend of nerdiness becoming cool, it could be a fantastic capstone project to my university education.

I’ve also been wondering why people I know who would totally have loved the Con play it cool in day to day life. Why aren’t we openly enthusiastic about these things all the time? What’s wrong with having that enormous goofy grin, jumping, and squeeing when your fandom comes up? And why do we only celebrate these things that we love when there are big events around them like a Con or a movie premiere or a book release?

Let’s let the nerd out. All the time. I mean, what’s wrong with liking stuff?

Today is awesome because I unexpectedly saw two friends who I did not expect to see today. I was walking to the gym, they had graduated and were called back for some work, and it was so fantastic to see them!