I’m a geek and damn proud of it. The reoccurring problem is many people have a misconception of the clique separating the dork from the cool person. This stream of thought resulted in my watching the spectacularly crappy show “Beauty and the Geek”. For the less intuitive among us, this show took several beautiful girls and paired them up with some socially perceived awkward guys in a series of challenges that would be difficult for someone who didn’t focus on pop culture or science most of their lives.
This show has caused me to think about how very different, yet very similar these two different types of people are. Both groups of people suffered extremely low self confidence in the others fields. The guys were posed with the task of getting phone numbers, which I admit was funny to watch because I could see myself doing the same stupid mistakes. The problem they encountered was not only confronting the girl but also be able to overcome the expected result of being rejected.
The Girls had the same problem, though being a horny adolescent it was much more difficult to perceive. When posed with math and science problems, something they never experienced, they constantly berated themselves for being stupid, when in reality the problem wasn’t hard they just expected failure and followed their own chosen destiny.
I remember back in High school, when I felt so envious of the “Popular” People. I assumed what separated us was their talent in sports and my book smarts. I always felt that the people in that clique never felt any doubt, but I realize now that I was probably wrong. Most likely they dreaded taking a math test as much as I dreaded asking a girl out. Now that I’m in college and the cliques have dissolved, it’s amazing how clearly I can see the situation. We are all the same people now, we have different interests and different confidences in different fields, but that doesn’t mean I’m incapable of being someone’s friend. Creating this diversity in our lives will not only allow us to grow and to become even more unique, but also overcome parts of our lives where we have doubt.
When I went to New York City back in May, I left my incredibly science oriented nerdy college, do go to the Fashion Institute of Technology. Possibly one of the hippest trendiest places I’ve been. If you want to know what Gap will be selling in 5 years, go watch these girls dress for a night out. When I was there I hung out with some of the coolest people I have ever met. Although I also realize that they were some of the biggest Dorks I’ve ever met. To my amazement there were flocks of cute girls who didn’t have giant 6’5” pro athlete boyfriends, instead many of them were single. They obsessed about fashion as much as I obsessed about computers. The funny thing was, it didn’t matter what we were passionate about, but the fact that we were passionate about something. This I believe is what really defines a dork. Many people define dorks as people who like Dungeon and Dragons, have no sense of style, or social skills. In reality what a dork’s true nature is, is someone who has passion about one thing, and is willing to commit themselves fully to it.
I lot of you may wonder where this came from, and “Beauty and the Geek” definitely helped me see the situation more clearly, but also recently I’ve talked to someone from my HS who I’m willing to say scared the hell out of me back in the day, even makes my heart flutter a bit now. Though after talking to her a bit, I’ve realized there was no reason for me to feel that way that I did. She’s a perfectly normal kind person, who has problems just like everyone else, and my retarded HS self who believed she would have the football team kick my ass for getting within 10ft of her presence was dead wrong.