I just got a Friendster message from a girl from high school who was in the saxophone section with me. At first I didn’t remember her. She’s cute in her Friendster pictures, so I told my coworkers about it, saying that you’d think I’d remember a cute girl I went to high school with. One of them said, “well maybe she was a nerd in high school and she’s cool now.” Possible. I replied, “I was a nerd in high school.”
A few minutes later, she said, “I can’t believe you were a nerd in high school.”
“I’m still a nerd.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Sure I am, I like computers and the internet and Star Wars and comic books and stuff and junk.”
“But all of that stuff is trendy now.”
“Well that’s just my good luck! Just because Spider-Man made $900 million doesn’t make me not still a nerd.”
I’d like to think that the rise in nerdy things into the mainstream comes from the movies we were reared on. Go back and watch most movies from the 80’s. Almost all the heroes are nerds. John Cusack and Michael J. Fox were the dork standard bearers for our generation. They got beat up at the beginnings of movies and won in the finales for us, the nerds who grew up.