Bud Light, Etc.

"Have you noticed this; 'nerd' somehow has become a badge of honor."

This morning I listened to my weekly podcast for This American Life and I felt a certain sense of gratification as Ira Glass continued on about how suddenly, anyone who feels "different" (and by different, he elaborates, means anyone in high school) suddenly qualifies as a nerd these days. Popular kids with a real social circle, who have boyfriends & girlfriends make these claims...and I'm paraphrasing...but he goes on to comment, "That's wrong."

As a biproduct of my former relationship, I backed down with my opinion on this subject a long time ago. Said ex-boyfriend's ex-girlfriend (who, by the way is a lovely, beautiful blonde with a fun and charming personality) once proclaimed in my presence that she was a "dork". This fueled in me a little contempt for the concept at hand. Ira has inspired me to reclaim that contempt.

I just spent the whole weekend at Lollapalooza droning through heavy consumption of Bud Light and indie rockers (and fans) who think it's cool to dress like...nerds. Funny; they were all trying to fit in. God, seriously; I know everyone has problems and inner demons...insecurities and hidden quirks...but...

I remember very clearly a moment in grade school gym class when a group of popular girls proclaimed out loud, "eeeeeeewwww!" when a certain, less (way way less) popular boy's name was called in attendance. That sucked. Dude ate raw Chicken Tonight out of a jar at lunch, wore sweatpants regularly and did the splits on command (in the lunchroom). Dude was not cool. Dude could not cover it up with "irony" and "irreverence".

Okay, now that I've gotten it out of my system I will admit that I've slipped myself with the self-depreciating nerd and dork references. Those words are at this point far beyond their initial function. And I have noticed that (having been to my ten year reunion and after catching up with former classmates in online social forums) people carry a certain nostalgia for those once labeled as (real) nerds. Somehow, the reminiscing involves both acknowledging what made the "nerd" so nerdy AND why that nerd is now awesome and worth reminiscing about. STUH-RAAAANGE.

Maybe it's not such a bad phenomenon? Is it??? Makes me want to vomit a little, but I'll get over it.