Friday, August 07, 2009

Why I Like Being A Nerd

I admit it, and I always have. I am a nerd. I'm a dork. I'm a geek. I'm even okay with calling myself weird. All of that is well and fine, and I take it as a compliment. You won't offend me calling me these things. In fact, I enjoy being the nerd that I am.

To begin, the definition of nerd should be addressed. Here are a three definitions found using Google's "define: nerd" function, though there were a few more results.
1. Nerd is a term often bearing a derogatory connotation or stereotype, that refers to a person who passionately pursues intellectual activities ...
2. A person who, although having good technical or scientific skills, is introspective and generally introverted
3. A form of candy currently sold by Nestlé under their Willy Wonka Candy Company brand.

In case you didn't know, I am not a form of candy sold by Willy Wonka. Nope, I'm more of a blend between the other two definitions. Basically, I really enjoy learning, reading things to improve my understanding of the physical, physiological, and psychological. I like learning about new technologies that are created to accomplish a certain task.

Pursuing knowledge is indeed a passion. It doesn't have to be scientific knowledge (though I find this branch of knowledge extremely interesting), as I enjoy pop culture, literature, and certain historical periods. Watching Jeopardy has always been fun, and I would love to get on the show some day. Indeed, playing Trivial Pursuit is always fun and challenging, and typically takes a few hours to complete.

Another thing that qualifies me as a nerd is the fact that I really love mathematics. I was a grader for two years or so during college, where I graded Engineering Calculus I, II, and III, and I also graded Differential Equations once or twice. This job was really fun, often humorous (it's amazing what struggling students will put on their papers to plea for help from the merciful/merciless graders), and educational. Working as a grader helped me keep calculus fresh, and it also sharpened my appreciation for math. You see, mathematics, be it algebra, arithmetic, or calculus, is beautiful. It is complete and perfect. Numbers are like a special type of magic that have to either work or fail. Once you understand the relationship or the theory behind something, it makes complete sense and it becomes obvious why a certain equation has to result in a certain answer.

Yes, friends, math is a beautiful and crazy thing. The field is always changing, redefining itself, questioning itself. This makes it exciting (and sometimes frustrating) to study and learn.

What else makes someone a nerd? Does the fact that I went to engineering school count? I think yes. Do conversations about technology and science fascinate me? Aye. Do I like playing around with computer programs, especially Excel, and see what I can do with them? Absolutely.

All in all, I am a unashamedly a nerd. I suppose that I always will be, even if it does occasionally drive Keisha crazy. Good luck, folks, and learn something today.

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Random Exceptional Song Lyric: "I wanted to see you walking backwards to get the sensation of you coming home. I wanted to see you walking away from me without the sensation you're leaving me alone."--Time and Time Again, Counting Crows

4 comments:

David Wagner said...

Nerds of the world, unite!

I am very solidly in the "nerd camp" myself. I always figured it was because I read a lot, write a lot, watch films, play games, devour trivia and history... basically all the stuff that people do when they prefer information to people.

Except anime. I don't do anime. And I'm not big into Sci-fi, either. And I was into baseball cards instead of superhero comic books growing up... so maybe I'm not as big a nerd as I thought...

But I was big into comic strips, though... Peanuts, Bloom County, Far Side, Calvin & Hobbes, BC, Dilbert... so I get some nerds points for that.

Someone should develop a "nerd scoring system" or something... then I could find out for sure what my rank is...

logankstewart said...

Dave, there should be some sort of Nerd Ranking scale. I'm sure that if we were to look hard enough we'd find some sort of guide online to judge our nerdiness.

I don't really do anime, either. I used to like Dragonball, but that was about it. However, I hear good things about Avatar.

Calvin & Hobbes is probably the best comic series ever made. I love reading those on cold, snowy days.

Krista said...

Hey, I'm a nerd as well and proud of it! I just love learning anything new it's always super exciting to me! I'll be joining you both in nerd villa!

David Wagner said...

http://www.armory.com/tests/nerd500.html

There's a Nerd Test, if you've got time to take it... it's long. I got a couple hundred questions in, but my ADD got the better of me and I browsed away...