Finish Line: Let your geek flag fly
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Growing up as a scrawny Star Trek nerd in the '90s, I learned pretty quickly to hide that part of myself to avoid being bullied just because I knew a little Klingon (Qapla'!).
- Now, approaching my 40s, I've learned to let my geek flag fly — and I'm glad for it.
The big picture: Part of what makes this easier is that the world has changed, and yes, I'm older. But geek culture is mainstream culture now.
- Star Wars is inescapable. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a $30 billion-plus franchise. The video game business generates more revenue than movies and music combined.
- I've also got a partner who (mostly) appreciates my nerdiness, or at least finds it endearing.
Between the lines: It's empowering to embrace a side of myself that I once felt pressured to tuck away.
- Nerd culture offers some genuinely great storytelling, and letting myself love it fully, without irony, is a tremendous relief.
- It also helps to still be a little embarrassed of my nerdiness — in a fun, slightly self-deprecating way.
I fully recognize plenty of Star Trek, for example, is objectively not great.
- But when it hits, boy does it hit. ("The Inner Light," "City on the Edge of Forever," "In the Pale Moonlight" ... list goes on).
I owe a lot of my comfort here to a pair of podcasters, Adam Pranica and Benjamin Harrison, whose decade-long Trek show, "The Greatest Generation," models positive, inclusive, self-aware geekdom.
- That approach also helps avoid the pit of toxic fandom — nerd culture should be inclusionary, not judgmental.
- Otherwise the once-bullied become bullies themselves.
And then there's my son. He's 6, currently deep in his Star Wars era, and watching him fearlessly geek out is just so dang wholesome.
- He's still way too young for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
- But give it time. When he is, I'll be right there.
