You should be a nerd! Or rather, you should continue to be a nerd! No, of course you don’t agree with this statement (except for maybe two crazy people). How dare I suggest that you have oversized front teeth, wear glasses, bowtie, and suspenders, and forever hold your index finger up in the air? Now that I have grabbed your attention, let me explain.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word “nerd” means “a person who is extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about a particular subject, especially one of specialist or niche interest.” Most people have at least one subject they hold a strong passion for. With such passion comes curiosity. Think about your favorite animal, do you know any facts about it that others don’t? Knowing gives people reasons for liking, and people don’t say they love something without having a good understanding of it. In the beginning, knowledge can be simple: you know what a koala looks like or you know what ice cream tastes like. Then, as interests become more complex, people start remembering specific things that require not just experience but extensive familiarity with the subject. For example, if you follow sports, you know how many titles your team/player has just by listening to commentators. If you like music, you know the backstories of certain songs just by immersing yourself in it. These interests are not academic or geeky, but having this depth of knowledge as a result of enthusiasm toward those subjects is often considered nerdy.
You may reject the idea that you cannot escape learning even when you read gossip about celebrities, but think about what learning truly is. Learning doesn’t equal school; it’s about absorbing information and adapting to a way of thinking. The population that does this best are babies. They are naturally curious about everything and want to explore them through physical contact. It may sound strange, but we are designed to learn.
So why do we stop exploring and suddenly start hiding certain passions? One reason is that our society has labeled people who have an “extreme” curiosity “nerds” and given them a negative connotation. Those people are thought to be anti-social, unathletic and have no sense of fashion. This intimidates others. They wonder what their friends may think if they made their passions known. If this sounds familiar, I encourage you to fight the embarrassment–much of the judgment comes from yourself. In the long run, knowledge only ever elevates instead of diminishes. To combat stereotypes, the best way is to be the counter example. In fact, friendship, sports and knowing how to dress well are areas everyone should try to grow in.
You also may not relate to the above paragraph. After all, “nerd” is just a label used to make fun of certain people. Most others aren’t unhealthily obsessed with seeking intelligence. This is valid, but the term stands out to me exactly because of this view. We think intelligence is a quality: some people have a lot of it, and some not so much. We’re offended when others say we lack this quality and are equally offended by the idea of having too much of it. It’s a mix of social bias and us telling ourselves we are not that kind of person or we are not that extreme. I encourage you to instead consider intelligence as a lifelong pursuit, and life is not that long. Think about Oxford’s definition. You are a specialist in whatever interest you dedicate a part of your life to. Whether it’s makeup, cars, quantum physics, food or another subject that calls you to it, treat such a call as a call to learn. You are a member of the human race, so don’t resist the urge to learn and actively try to have it. Being a nerd is not about naturally possessing knowledge. It’s about allowing yourself to be obsessed with what you love.
