Editor's Note: Geek, Dork, Nerd

[Russ Pitts]

Geek, Dork, Nerd

You may have been teased for it as a child, but this week we're celebrating how nerdy you are.

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[Pariahwulfen]

There's even a growing trend to "own" that moniker and make it a rallying cry.

For what it's worth, I've been flying that flag proudly since I first started playing 40k back in the Rogue Trader days at the tender age of six.

 

[The_Deleted]

I've always been a geek, It's only as an adult I've been able to afford to do it 'hardcore'.

 

[Owlslayer]

Hell...you were lucky to be the cool guy and at the same time have some nerdy activities.

Also, i was also bullied in school. It started in class 5 or so (i was about 11 i think), and got worse and worse. Some new kids came to the class (in year 8 or so)that made my life a living hell. But they couldn't even finish the grade and i got rid of them. I was bullied since i was one of the best in all of the grades, aka different, i think. It sucked really bad to be me. I started to hate recess, since that was the time they would come to "make me a visit".

But...then, in grade 9, something weird happened. It stopped. The bullies that were still in my class didn't move on to other victims...they just changed. I have no idea why, but I'm happy as hell.But still, that change was quite mysterious, i reckoned that it had something to do with being teenagers or whatnot.
My life was really miserable, but now it's all flowers and puppy-dogs. More or less.

I'm glad i didn't quit halfway through the time in my life called "I hate my life", be it by going to another school or something more drastic...

I'm proud to be a geek or nerd! (i don't really like dork, can you blame me? Maybe)

 

[Buizel91]

That picture with Darth Vader holding the worlds best dad cup...

Epic.

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

...but I can honestly look back on that time of my life as the point at which I stopped caring what other people thought of me and decided to be myself and stand up for my right to do so.

I came to the same conclusion about my junior year in high school, and it was incredible to finally shrug off all the bullshit that went with my teen years and go, "None of this is going to matter a year from now, so why should I feel ashamed about it?"

 

[C4N4DUCK18]

I was bullied in my early years, but then I literally turned Ninja because everyone mellowed out and stopped picking on me. Or, maybe it was because I was a head taller than everyone by grade 6? I don't know. Eventually I went to high school where everything was hell for a year in a half, but again, things turned better (mostly because the "bullies" either stopped coming to school or were just to high/drunk to do anything).For once I had friends instead of one and a half (some people I never really connected with). Nerds ftw!

 

[Nihilism_Is_Bliss]

For the most part I've had a similar experience to Russ.
I've never had trouble making friends despite having some more geeky interests, but I have of course been through my own social hardships because of it.
All-in-all worth it

 

[RvLeshrac]

I was bullied from Kindergarten onwards. Kids aren't as evil as they used to be, they're much, much more evil nowadays.

This.

Facilitated by parents who have no desire to, along with school administrators, teachers, and other officials who completely ignore it, encourage it, or wave it away with a "kids will be kids."

The case-in-point is last week's Rutgers suicide. Using a hidden camera to record someone having sex without their knowledge is simply wrong, but spreading the video around is evil. And these were college "kids," who are supposedly mature enough to drive, vote, and join the military. The entire country will see them get a slap on the wrist, and it will spawn a new generation of kids just like them.

 

[Eren Murtaugh]

Unfortunately...I was a bully. I picked on kids who I saw as geeks, nerds, and dorks. I shoved them in lockers, laughed when I broke their toys, and did everything I could to make their lives hell... I did it because here were kids who were doing some of the weirdest shit I'd ever seen, and no one expected them to be doing anything different. They were happy. I was furious. I'd never been happy molding in with the crowd. They all stood together when someone got bullied, but for my group, if it got hot you were on your own. I couldn't stand that there was a group of people who were having fun doing what they wanted. Shortly after my second year of high school, I said fuck it and dropped everything that I was doing and embraced things that made me happy. I lost a ton of social cred, and my girlfriend at the time dumped me, but I didn't care. I was finally happy with who I was. Unfortunately, I looked back at some of the kids that I had bullied, and tried to apologize, but they didn't care. I had driven one of them to being a complete shut in. He dropped out of school, and stopped doing anything. When I saw him(he was sent to an institution.) I cried. I hated myself, and I still do. Nothing fixes bullying, and it's wrong for anyone to do it. If I could go back in time, I would kick the shit out of myself, regardless of age. Feel free to flame and hate P.M. me. I deserve it...

 

[JashobeamZ]

i can truly say that not only is my comic book collection, DVD Anime collection, action figure collection, video game collection, and all of the above t-shirt paraphernalia collection extremely profuse, but i also have a large amount of team MVP sports trophy's(in real life). i am never ashamed of being the geek that i am. i own the entire series of dragon ball Z on DVD and adorn my room with geek posters. (and im married so you can imagine how my wife, who is of no geekiness at all feels about this.) no one ever messed with me in high school because i looked crazy. and to tell the truth, i might have been a little over exuberant in the effort to protect the small and geeky from the likes of the bully. In any case, i love that the world is moving towards a place where it is cool to be a geek. With shows on television like "the big bang theory" and video game terms like "Pwnd" moving out of the geek realm into the real world. well i just sit back and say, "Ive been doing it all along." there is a small amount of pride that comes when people start to come around to something you've always been into, and i definitely take pride in the fact that i have been a geek for as long as i can remember.

 

[JashobeamZ]

Unfortunately...I was a bully. I picked on kids who I saw as geeks, nerds, and dorks. I shoved them in lockers, laughed when I broke their toys, and did everything I could to make their lives hell... I did it because here were kids who were doing some of the weirdest shit I'd ever seen, and no one expected them to be doing anything different. They were happy. I was furious. I'd never been happy molding in with the crowd. They all stood together when someone got bullied, but for my group, if it got hot you were on your own. I couldn't stand that there was a group of people who were having fun doing what they wanted. Shortly after my second year of high school, I said fuck it and dropped everything that I was doing and embraced things that made me happy. I lost a ton of social cred, and my girlfriend at the time dumped me, but I didn't care. I was finally happy with who I was. Unfortunately, I looked back at some of the kids that I had bullied, and tried to apologize, but they didn't care. I had driven one of them to being a complete shut in. He dropped out of school, and stopped doing anything. When I saw him(he was sent to an institution.) I cried. I hated myself, and I still do. Nothing fixes bullying, and it's wrong for anyone to do it. If I could go back in time, I would kick the shit out of myself, regardless of age. Feel free to flame and hate P.M. me. I deserve it...

you may deserve a lot of things but at least you tried to apologize and that is commendable in my eyes. not to mention we can all see by your avatar that you are no different from the rest of us now.

 

[Eren Murtaugh]

Unfortunately...I was a bully. I picked on kids who I saw as geeks, nerds, and dorks. I shoved them in lockers, laughed when I broke their toys, and did everything I could to make their lives hell... I did it because here were kids who were doing some of the weirdest shit I'd ever seen, and no one expected them to be doing anything different. They were happy. I was furious. I'd never been happy molding in with the crowd. They all stood together when someone got bullied, but for my group, if it got hot you were on your own. I couldn't stand that there was a group of people who were having fun doing what they wanted. Shortly after my second year of high school, I said fuck it and dropped everything that I was doing and embraced things that made me happy. I lost a ton of social cred, and my girlfriend at the time dumped me, but I didn't care. I was finally happy with who I was. Unfortunately, I looked back at some of the kids that I had bullied, and tried to apologize, but they didn't care. I had driven one of them to being a complete shut in. He dropped out of school, and stopped doing anything. When I saw him(he was sent to an institution.) I cried. I hated myself, and I still do. Nothing fixes bullying, and it's wrong for anyone to do it. If I could go back in time, I would kick the shit out of myself, regardless of age. Feel free to flame and hate P.M. me. I deserve it...

you may deserve a lot of things but at least you tried to apologize and that is commendable in my eyes. not to mention we can all see by your avatar that you are no different from the rest of us now.

In truth, I have no clue who the guy in my avatar is, I just picked it from a web comic I was making. He was gonna be saying that to lyrics of a song by Kesha. I have embraced a bit more geekyness since then , but it still doesn't fix the fact that I sent that poor kid to an institution.

 

[Marowit]

Your double-life sounds very familiar when I think of my growing up. I played hockey, I did alright in most of my courses, but in sciences something clicked into place and things just made sense before they were suppose to. I kept my head down for the most part, and was quite good at hockey so that helped some socially. I also have dyslexia, and so the long walk to 'Resource Room', or as the cool kids called it, "Retard Room," helped nudge me back over to the dork/geek/weird camp. I had friends on both ends of the spectrum; the bro jock, and the bespectacled D&D geek. And, on most Friday nights, after playing pick up hockey for a couple of hours, I would find myself playing video games (so many hours with my n64 and PS2) or watching Adult Swim.

It's interesting thinking back on it now, but one thing's for sure I am definitely consider myself a geek/nerd/dork now. Going out bars to hang out is about as appealing to me as hitting myself int he face with a hammer. But, staying in, cooking a fun meal, and watching Hitchhikers Guide sounds like my kind of ideal Friday night - luckily my gal thinks the same.

 

[Eren Murtaugh]

In truth, I have no clue who the guy in my avatar is, I just picked it from a web comic I was making. He was gonna be saying that to lyrics of a song by Kesha. I have embraced a bit more geekyness since then , but it still doesn't fix the fact that I sent that poor kid to an institution.

bullshit.

You don't have to be a Star Trek fan to know who Captain Picard is, you just have to be alive and have access to any kind of television. You're clearly capable to surfing the internet and therefore have access to the basic information relayed there. Thanks to this post, I call bullshit on your whole story...the bullying, the dude who ended up institutionalized, that whole, clichéd little rant of yours that sounded like it was pulled directly from Dr. Phil.

but let me guess: you don't know who Dr. Phil is.

I know who Dr. Phil is, and for your information, I don't watch a lot of TV. I watch CMT in the mornings, and turn on PBS Kids for my nephews. I knew he was from the X-Men movies, but I never knew his name. Sorry I don't fit your bill of a TV obsessed mindless idiot. I read. But, I wasn't asking you[i/] to forgive me for anything. If all you're here for is to try and call "bullshit" on my story, maybe you shouldn't be here. Believe what you will, I;m not gonna defend myself unnecessarily against someone who's gonna try and shoot down everything I say to them.
.

 

[pcultimate]

Hmmm funny I've always (and still have) had a wierd experience.
To start it off I wasn't always a nerd, sure I may have played a bit of Doom and Wolfenstein and Half-life but it was never really serious..and back then i didn't know what the difference between a CD and a DVD was *shame* .
Then at the age of about ten things changed- i got a new computer (still using it now, soon will upgrade to a i7 DX11 machine ) and things exploded. In litellary two years I got into D&D, Hardware, Comics and a LOT of videogames. So suddenly after a year or so I realised- I was now a nerd. Crap I thought I must look really bad in peoples eyes. But was it because I was "normal" before, or something else I don't know but I never stopped my old habits. I still went out. I still played football a LOT.
To be honest I was always considered a bit nerdy since I am, well I really hate bragging about it but lets just say i have an "above average" IQ. Also people have told me I have a great sense of humour.
So logically I made friends EXTREMELY easy so I awlays knew closely at least 70% of the people from each class. Maybe thats why I never got bullied. Sure I was nerdy as hell but I dressed like the "cool dudes" I acted like them, I joked with them and so I never felt excluded in any way. I got invited to partys and birthdays, I had a ton of friends, everything was great.
I guess another factor was the fact I moved a lot. My first school was an ordinary one but when I reached 4th grade, my parents decided I should go to a better school. So I went to a mathematics school from 5th to 7th grade. I adjusted suprisingly well and had even MORE friends than before. Then at 7th grade I took the admitance tests (thats how things work in my country) and I got in everywhere. So I was split up... Most of my friends went to a higher tier mathematics college, but they were all the "nerdy ones" and also going there would make me go to math competitions and the like. My other choice was ACS- American College of Sofia( its in Bulgaria-Go Berbatov ), it was famous for its strict rules, discipline and how succesful all the kids that came out of it were. So I made a leap of faith. (On a side note whilst studying English outside of school I was a bit closer to a "nerd" since I watched a LOT of cartoons as little and was way ahead of the rest and as a result was 4 years ahead of my age. Let me tell you something being 10 and having to be with 15 year olds staring at you like your an alien all the time was NOT a good experience. Also the fact I won essay competitions and got an average of 97% didn't help either :/. It's a bit weird since I never have studied... EVER. I went to take a scholarship test and was first after exiting 20 minutes after the begining...the test was supposed to be 2hrs. And sinced I start feeling im braging a lot lets just continue)

So here I am 9th grade... I have a girlfriend, I am in the school soccer team, i actively play tennis, I am now learning to play the guitar adn yet... I'm nerdier than ever.
I have no idea how this happened but it's awesome. I feel great now. The teachers like me. The "cool kids" all know me and like me and the nerds accept me as one of their own. I am my class representative at the moment so yeah I'd say im pretty popular in the school. I seriously don't know how i do it. I always seem to find the biggest amount of friends for the least amount of time. I've always felt like the link between all the worlds. I have emo friends, death metal friends, nerdy friends, athletic friends even a couple of gothic female friends. Most of them would never even CONSIDER talking to each other, yet, they all accept me.
Is it humour? Is it charisma (I always disregard that stat in RPGs ) I don't know.
I have no idea how I pulled it off but I love my life.
Being a nerd and enjoying it to the fullest whilst being greeted by everyone in the hallways feels great.
So yeah there goes your anti-social nerd theory...
P.S. I'm sorry for the chaotic style of writing and the grammar/punctual mistakes in it i'm kind of in a hurry right now so yeah sry
Also excuse me if I've gotten waay to arrogant in the post, I honestly did not do it on purpose.
P.S.2 I almost forgot three very important things in my story which im not proud of...
-first of all I have done something that I'm really ashamed of before- hurting nerdy kids so as to seem cool in front of the "cool kids", even after appologising I feel really bad for all I've done (And will never do it again)
-People have tried to bully me twice:
-once in 4th grade a bunch of 7th graders tried to punch one of my friend in OUR OWN FREAKING classroom no less, so I flipped and I might have punched three or four of them and I did throw my self knee forward into one guys stomach... I'm not really proud of that but people did somehow start to respect me more so two weeks later those same guys met me behind school and tried to surround me but about 20 kids from our grade jumped on them and chased them away. The fact they stood up for me made me feel great and I think it shows there are good friends out there. (I don't really like friends who run away when you need them). Two weeks after that the 7th graders came to me shook my hand and appologised.
- In 8th grade when I was still a "newbie" in the school a 9th grader tried to pull me out of my polace in the cafeteria. So I stood up and I asked him are you really sure you want to get yourself hurt and expelled for some crappy cafeteria food? (the rules in the school are VERY strict about the guy who attacks first) I think that caught him off guard because he stood there staring at me and then grumped and walked away. We are now great friends and play games regularly. SO don't misdjudge bullies people. They have hearts too
P.S. Sorry about it being so HUGE
tl;dr Nerds aren't always outcasts of society.

 

[Buchichu]

I know who Dr. Phil is, and for your information, I don't watch a lot of TV. I watch CMT in the mornings, and turn on PBS Kids for my nephews. I knew he was from the X-Men movies, but I never knew his name. Sorry I don't fit your bill of a TV obsessed mindless idiot. I read. But, I wasn't asking you[i/] to forgive me for anything. If all you're here for is to try and call "bullshit" on my story, maybe you shouldn't be here. Believe what you will, I;m not gonna defend myself unnecessarily against someone who's gonna try and shoot down everything I say to them.
.

LMAO!

my my, you sure went from "Feel free to flame and hate P.M. me. I deserve it..." to insanely defensive pretty quickly. Maybe I was wrong about you, you seem to have the same kind of personality traits as a typical bully - able to dish it out but just can't take it.

you seems to think you've grown up since your childhood days but believe me, you haven't. Some free advice: if you're going to hang out on the internet freely offering up personal information and participating on message boards, learn to grow a thicker skin.

Karma's a *****.

 

[JashobeamZ]

In truth, I have no clue who the guy in my avatar is, I just picked it from a web comic I was making. He was gonna be saying that to lyrics of a song by Kesha. I have embraced a bit more geekyness since then , but it still doesn't fix the fact that I sent that poor kid to an institution.

bullshit.

You don't have to be a Star Trek fan to know who Captain Picard is, you just have to be alive and have access to any kind of television. You're clearly capable to surfing the internet and therefore have access to the basic information relayed there. Thanks to this post, I call bullshit on your whole story...the bullying, the dude who ended up institutionalized, that whole, clichéd little rant of yours that sounded like it was pulled directly from Dr. Phil.

but let me guess: you don't know who Dr. Phil is.

i don't know if his story is true or not but i can only weep in knowing that the king of all space pimps (captain Picard) isn't known by someone who is a frequenter of a forum such as this.

 

[ironlordthemad]

There's even a growing trend to "own" that moniker and make it a rallying cry.

For what it's worth, I've been flying that flag proudly since I first started playing 40k back in the Rogue Trader days at the tender age of six.

High 5 for 40k!

But back on topic:
OK didn't we just get told not to use the word "gamer" by like 3 different people on this site because it was pidgeon holeing us and making us outcasts, how is nerd, geek or dork any different?

I call shenanigans!