An example, I meet someone at my new job who is an uber geek, especially for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. Needless to say that we hit if off and talked geek for over an hour straight. When we finished he said.. "man we are nerds!!", kind of in a derogatory way. I asked him if our conversation made him uncomfortable and he said he's never had a conversation like that before. I told him I have conversations like that with my friends everyday and he was surprised.
Another example, I have a friend who was married for many years, now divorced. But we got to talking recently and he mentioned how geeky he truly is now. When he was married, though still a geek, he didn't explore all the avenues of being a geek. He hide part of himself, or maybe he didn't know how strong that geeky part was, regardless he wasn't allowing himself to be his true geeky self.
So my question to all my blog readers.. do you hide your geekiness, if so.. why?
i might have at one point in time, but not anymore. and never again.
ReplyDeleteNever. And I'll admit to having suffered for it. But it's part of who I am. And I decided long ago that if there's anyone who doesn't like that aspect of my life, they're not worth my time. That's why ALL my friends are awesome. ;)
ReplyDeleteI don't hide it - but I wouldn't say I wear it as a badge of honor either. I did go to a high school where the TI83 Calculator Man was our mascot, and people signed each other's yearbooks in Elvish. I guess I just treat it like any other part of my life. Kenny, you know me pretty well - does that sound about right?
ReplyDeleteI hid it from my coworkers for a long time.The trouble with me is that I wear my brain on my sleeve-so people are bound to notice my geekiness even if I try to hide it. Guess you'd have to define geek-if you mean being into all those things WE love, then no-it hasn't particularly been hidden, although apart from the Guildies, I don't really have friends that are of my ilk that are my age that share my interests. Thank goodness for my sweet husband, who allows me to indulge my time and attention to things I love to see and do. Also, since becoming friends with all the Guild people, it's very nice to have people to chat with and talk about geeky things.
ReplyDeleteIf you are referring to social awkwardness, it's definitely something I have struggled with all my life-because of my ADHD.A lot of the time, even when I may appear self assured in situations, inside I am quaking with the fear of rejection-something I have also struggled with. Being geeky with certain people gets you branded as "weird" (and not in a good way, like an artist or something like that) and people can be mean, or worse, just ignore your existance. Natuarally, being treated this way doesn't do much to increase your confidence in social situations! I've grown a lot in this area as a person, and have worked hard to learn how to socially navigate, and how to discern if a rejection really is worth the risk of showing people who I really am.
JL
I did to fit in when I was at school, mostly people saw through it and I never fit in anyways. Then I found people who were cool even with the geekiness and it didn't matter anymore.
ReplyDeleteWith friends, never.
ReplyDeleteAt work, with most coworkers, I don't hide it but I don't particularly throw it out there. With most of them, it's just not relevant. With our "customers" I'm expected to maintain a certain degree of professional distance and not share personal information, so I do hide it around them I suppose.
When I'm out and not with friends, I just tend not to interact, so I'm not specifically hiding my geekiness ... I'm just hiding ...
Never felt the need to hide my geekyness...wearing it on the outside as s badge of honor. I really can't think of any reason, why I would ever hide it!!
ReplyDelete