Even though I did major in physics, then math, in college, I never really embraced my inner geek. Sure, when I was in elementary school, I thought it was cool to ask for a chemistry set or microscope for my birthday, but once I became a teen, I would rather pass the time by hanging out at the mall. From then on, I always had that internal struggle between being at heart a geek and wanting to be normal or ever, shudder, cool.
Over the past few years, I have come to terms with my geekiness. Yeah, I know, it’s easy now that (1) I have no peer pressure to act otherwise and (2) our technological times have made geek more acceptable.
2009 was my year to move beyond my geek acceptance and actually work on increasing my geek cred. A math degree and a love of puns can only carry me so far.
As I read geeky best of 2009 lists and geeky resolutions for 2010, I found myself looking back on my own Year in Geek. In 2009, I added to my geekiness in the following ways. (This is not a complete list and only includes things I started doing this year.)
- Started watching Star Trek: TNG
- Read xkcd regularly
- Started reading at least 2 geek blogs daily (I ♥ GeekDad)
- Read 2 books on logic
- Built a science unit (for homeschool) based on a MythBusters epsode
- Bought an electric circuit kit and used it with one of my geeklings
- Started a blog that was an anagram of my name!
I know there’s more. Those are just the ones that stand out in my mind right now. I also watched more sci-fi than I ever have and I finally got the whole time travel thing, but I think that happened last year when I was watching Terminator: TSCC.
I don’t have any geek-related goals for 2010. Actually, my goals this year are more related to my artsy side. But I do want to continue to embrace the geek and encourage my children to do the same. My 6th grader already gets flack on the playground for being a word nerd. I never want them to eschew their geekiness in an effort to try and fit in. I figure the best protection against that is to make being a geek way more fun than being normal.
