There always has, and I believe, always will be an unattractive social stigma attached to being a Nerd. Society has often shunned these usually misunderstood peoples as being Shy, anti-social, obsessive weirdoes who lack a focused life-goal and strong work ethic. They are looked down upon as being sluggish oafs who simply do not belong with the crowd, no matter what that crowd may be.
Before I continue any further, allow me to explain to you exactly what I believe a Nerd to be.
A nerd is somebody who will hawk a videogame website on a daily basis, just hoping for that one time he or she will log on and read HALO 3 PREVIEW: Will Halo 3 be the greatest installment yet? Read our highly in-depth preview to find out. [Oh man, I kind of get all tingly all over just thinking about it.]
A nerd is that guy/girl who knows not only the lyrics, but also choreography of both Knights of the Round Table and The Manly Men songs.
A nerd is the single nicest, considerate, and consistently helpful individual you could ever meet. A nerd will never exclude you from our Counter-Strike LAN Parties, we would never consider leaving you out of a discussion of Light/Dark side powers while waiting in line for the next installment of Star Wars, and we are always there with a smile on our faces and a controller in our hands, just ready to whoop some monkey-ass at some Marvel vs Capcom. A nerd will not sleep with your girlfriend/boyfriend.
However, what truly stands as the most shining paragon of nerdiness, the one facet of this lifestyle that stands as the benchmark of the nerds character, is their immovable and unerring dedication to being Just another nerd. To further support my argument, I would like to display to the world the following philosophy, which is a code by which every nerd lives by in his or her own unique fashion: There is but one goal in life, and that is to be as happy as possible, with only one exception: This happiness cannot interfere with another beings state of happiness.
Now that you fully understand just what a nerd is, it is time that I take the cards you have so painstakingly set up concerning your opinion of these misinterpreted persons and strike down upon them with great vengeance and furious anger. The first thought that always crosses mind when discussing nerds would easily be their life. To be more precise, society's idea concerning their lack there-of. Ive heard it before, "Well, at least I have a life/girlfriend/friends!" or "Shouldn't you be outside instead of stuck in here like a loser? Go outside every once in awhile you hermit crab" or maybe my favorite, "I feel sorry for you, it must suck only having videogames to make you happy" Okay, since when did I say ONLY videogames make me happy? Why is it that I must be labeled lonely or "life-less" because my hobby is chilling on my bed whilst enjoying owning noobs and eating pizza instead of shopping at the mall wondering which nail polish will match my earrings
Tell me, why can't I be a girl gamer who isn't fat and pimply, who can wear normal clothes, and who can enjoy a chick flick AND an action-packed mindless macho movie? Even more so, why can't those girls who ARE fat and pimply be left alone to her gaming world??? What is so wrong with that? Why can't I, Marisa, appreciate a high-score more then a diamond necklace? Just because I don't like talking on the phone for hours about boys does not make me a traitor to the girl world. I was born and raised a gamer and damn it, I'm sticking to it.
Just because everyone says that over the age of 20 you have to have a 9-5 job and live a mediocre life, does not make it true! If anything, we are the exception. We are that last bit of light and fun in a world filled with up-tight butt wads. Maybe we don't want to be just another spot of gray in the colorless sea of boring, maybe we want to be who we are truly inside. If being normal means conforming to having a life zapped of fun and eating dinner at 6:00 every night while watching the news, then, YOU CAN HAVE IT! I DON'T WANT TO BE NORMAL IF THAT'S THE CASE! Call us weirdos all you want but if you ask me, someone who can't enjoy the sweet taste of life and live it to the fullest is the TRUE weirdo.
Let me get this straight, because I happen to enjoy videogames more then the other girl, or because a good time with me is watching re-runs of Star Trek with the mute on so that me and my friends may ad-lib the lines in a humorous manner, or even because I opted to stay home one night to play online Co-Op Smash TV on XBL, I dont have a life? Wrong.
I DO NOT LIVE YOUR LIFESTYLE, AND QUITE FRANKLY, I DO NOT WANT TO
Us nerds are capable of showing a guy/girl to a homemade romantic candle-lit dinner, just as capable as I am of taking him to play Laser Tag and blowing 40dollars worth of quarters at an arcade. To me, either situation is equally appealing. Simply because I have a poster featuring Solid Snake adorned with a crocodile cap creeping through a swamp posted proudly upon the most visible position on the western wall of my room does not mean that I am no stranger to any situation, especially to that of dating. We can flirt, woo, seduce, and make love just as good if not better then you. My 100 uper Mario 64 completion has no deterrence on this fact.
I apologize for the temperamental presentation of the prior segment, but as a nerd, I have to struggle to prove to people that I can be a human being, with that so called "life" you so obviously flaunt, while also being one hell of a Super Smash Bros contender, without either one of these displays of character clashing.
So you probably would like to ask, Why do you liken yourself to these sorts of activities even though you are often chastised for indulging in them? The answer is very, very simple. I ENJOY THEM. The nerd culture provides such an immense intellectual and personal stimulation that I could not help but be lulled by its ironic sense of comforting, forgiving, and often times humorous presentation. Even if we are perceived as being anti-social trolls, I would never even consider living by any other code then by that of a nerd.
This convenient segue also resurrects another smelly stigma, the anti-social tendencies of nerds. Individuals with severe depression or public anxiety are anti-social, not the chubby guy wearing the 1-Up shirt chatting up with the manager at EBGames. Also, despite popular belief, nerds are not afraid to try new things, even in social settings. Granted, although I do often times revert to armchair warfare with a few of my pals, I would never refuse the opportunity to expand my horizons and broaden my own knowledge of the world around me, whether Im being treated to a metal/ska/punk/whatevertheHell concert, a romantic date, or even an alcohol-fueled party. I, as a true card-carrying nerd, would never refuse the opportunity to try something foreign, and any other fellow nerd would never allow the thought of doubt to cross his or her mind when this opportunity reveals itself along the winding path of life. Everything in life has its own quirkiness to it, and any nerd can see the beauty in the oddity of all things, and to discover this beauty, we must not be afraid to seek it. When a nerd has accepted this philosophy, he or she is truly then personally free of all negativity that society staples on to the proud and honorable title of Nerd.
We do not wish to enforce our way upon society, yet ask only that society accepts us as we come, for we could never jeopardize our unmistakable and unchangeable lifestyle. It is in this that the truth of a nerds character is revealed. A nerd is made not when he hits a new Pac-Man high score, nor when he has finished watching Office Space for the 100th time, or even when he has finally found Issue #1. A nerd is created through all of the personal, mental, and emotional choices and actions that have lead up to those aforementioned achievements. Nerd is not a culture, nerd is a lifestyle, and I am here to say to the world, Hello Planet Earth, I am a nerd
mixing fonts and colours did my head in tbh
