The first step is admitting you have a problem. My name is Raye, and I'm a nerd. Well, allegedly, anyway. Hardly a day goes by when that adjective isn't thrown my way for some reason or another.
I could quote Lord of the Rings to you in three different Elvish languages, and my wedding rings are replicas of the ones worn by Galadriel in the movies. In high school, I wore Arwen's necklace to homecoming.
I reference Star Wars almost daily, and I have a Deathly Hallows bracelet. I dressed up in costume with friends for the midnight release of The Hobbit. I still play all my old Nintendo 64 games, and I could school you in Mario Party.
Lately, though, I've noticed the word "nerd" is becoming synonymous with "hipsters who want to seem smart." I saw a chick in a Death Star t-shirt and frameless black glasses on Facebook with the caption, "live long and prosper." I almost died.
Loving the new Star Trek movies doesn't make you a nerd. Popping the lenses out of plastic black glasses doesn't make you look smart.
We're all making fun of you. Well, except the people who are doing it with you, but they think you're a poser, and they were doing it before it was cool. \0x2028 I get it; I really do. People want to be trendy, and that's fine. I bought a pair of wedges the other day because every girl at Sky Bar last week was wearing them, and they look pretty cute. I can't walk in them, but that's another column for another time.
My question is this: why do you have to sacrifice your individuality to be in fashion or cool? And why is "nerd" the new thing? Being a nerd has been historically the opposite of cool, and the true nerds out there are still being shunned.
How many of you would be willing to openly talk about your World of Warcraft raids or your character in Dungeons and Dragons? Anybody? I didn't think so.
Pop-culture knowledge and Internet memes do not a nerd make. Leave me and the other true nerds alone, hipsters. Stop stealing the only thing that's ours. Go take more Instagram pictures of that vegan dinner you had last night. (By the way, we know you ate a hamburger afterwards. That couldn't feed a hamster, and you're not fooling anyone.)
Just be you. Why would you want to be anybody else? When you stop giving a damn what the rest of the world thinks I promise you'll be happier. Stop doing things because it's what's "in." If you like it? Great. But don't just do it to fit in.
There are a million squares and circles and triangles out there. You don't have to be one of them. Embrace your weirdness, be amorphous and may the Force be with you.
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