Meagan Kate (Punchline Magazine) will be attempting over the next few weeks or months or whatever to learn the ways of Nerd – sort of like Captain America but backwards and with a vagina. Join her on her heroic journey which is sure to be fraught with peril (which she will take! she will take the peril!), won’t you?
After years of considering myself a “comedy nerd” or a “fashion nerd” (read: woman with a shopping problem), I have officially decided that it’s time to become a nerd in the classic sense.
I have to start by telling you all why I am largely shunned by my “nerd” friends: I have never played a video game (aside from Sonic the Hedgehog on the SEGA I used for three days around Christmas of 1996). I have never read an entire sci-fi or fantasy book. I have never seen Star Wars. I have never seen Lord of the Rings. I have never watched Battlestar Galactica.
Meagan thinks this word means "bacon".
Growing up, I was the “funny one” and spent much of my free time trying desperately to fit in with the jocks that I found myself er…attracted to. That desperation coupled with my being an only child meant I spent a lot of time being someone that I wasn’t, hoping to get out of high school intact so that I could stop trying so hard. But then I went to college and I joined a sorority and that plan never really panned out.
Love you guys *hic* so HARD. So hard. *hic*
I came back to Portland after college to start graduate school and had to start all over when it came to friends. Over the last three years I have found a great network of people: Comics, writers, actors and nerds. Mostly nerds. Except for me. My boyfriend in college was a huge gamer and refused to teach me anything because, he claimed, I hadn’t played since I was eight like he had so I wouldn’t “get it.” It would “take too long” he argued.
After our relationship ended, I dated a guy who was really into comic books. I told him I wanted to read some of them because I never had before. He told me that I couldn’t because I wouldn’t “get it” since I hadn’t been into them since childhood. “I wouldn’t like any of them?” I asked. “No. I wouldn’t even know where to start with you,” he replied. So I gave up.
Over the years I’ve heard friends complain about people who claim to be nerds but lack “cred” (like in gangs!) so I keep my mouth shut about my secret desire to play video games and read comic books because I’m scared they will tell me it’s too late. I’m too old to start and I don’t fit in. I don’t have a nerd pass.
But isn’t that backwards? Isn’t this culture, and this site, about people having an interest in something that allows them to escape and explore and have adventures?
I want that. And I’m going to get it.
This project/transformation/experiment isn’t about me being someone I’m not (again) or trying to infiltrate a subculture that I have no attachment to. This is about me pursuing something I’ve always wanted to try but was told again and again I couldn’t.
And so it begins: Meagan Gets Nerdy. I’ll be playing video games, reading comic books, watching Star Wars and doing pretty much everything else that’s suggested by the peeps at Nerd Puddle and you, the readers. I want it all. I want to be covered in it. I want the nerdiness inside of me. I want to take it in and spew it back out and then wallow in it like Slimer in a great big pool of ectoplasm (that’s a nerd thing, right?) I WANT TO BE A NERD PUDDLE.
This picture is actually kind of horrifying.
I can only see this resulting in AWESOME. Can’t wait to read the progress of this transformation!!! your fellow nerdpuddler ~ andrew
DO IT
Oh – nerds do video games and read comics? I guess I’m not a nerd then.
I love this! It’s like science, only instead of boring physicists we have a witty lady!
Eat a dick Max Planck!
On a more serious note, Megan, learning to live the “geek” lifestyle is just like learning to ride a bike; Odds are pretty solid that you’re going to fall into a hedge.
And I apologize for spelling your name wrong. Feel free to replace my vowel at will with whatever you see fit.
-N#x
Ed I need guidance. What other things should I try!? What makes *you* a nerd, sir?
Andrew & Adam – THANK YOU!
Nex, thanks! Another secret: I can’t ride a bike. Your example does not compute. But I guess I’m going to fall over at some point?
Straight into a hedge.
Probably a hedge full of spiders.
NNNOOOOOOOO! Nex, I hate spiders. I’m sweating uncontrollably.
will you go to one of those convention thingys?! i really hope so! i would like to go to one of those vicariously through you.
You must read a BUNCH of my comic books.
We’ll start with “The Sword”
I’m so excited for you! Let me know if you want me to send you anything or reference anything or anything anything!!!! You’ll do great and this is AWESOME and I look forward to updates about your adventures