Christine Marie

Before I begin, let’s just take a moment to set something straight…Geek…Nerd…what the hell is the difference? Is there a difference? Short answer, no. For all intents and purposes geek and nerd are used interchangeably these days, and while there may be some out there that disagree with this opinion, as far as I’m concerned they are one and the same. So, now that we have that cleared up, let’s get on with it.

Whether you like it or not, the world of geeks is no longer relegated to the basements of outdated, middle-class ramblers. Geek is now a mainstream, multi-billion-dollar phenomenon and chances are, you are part of it, whether you’d like to accept that or not. Oh, but you’re not a geek you say? Ya, I thought so too, not so long ago. Geeks were those weird kids in high school that spent their summers dressing up to do pretend battles and something to do with dragons in their parent’s basements. You couldn’t pay me enough to associate with the likes of them. Fast forward a few years (okay, maybe a few more than a few) and I now wear my geek loud and proud. Hang around me long enough and you may even get a glimpse of me in my full Amazonian alter ego cosplay as Wonder Woman. Wait a second…how the hell did I get here!? To fully understand my complete transformation into the world of geek, I need to take you back to where it all began.

In the fall of 2013 I found myself confined to bed for a minimum of three weeks while I recovered from a surgery. At the time, I thought it sounded delightful – three full weeks of doing NOTHING while my husband managed the house and our two small children, sign me up! At first, it was everything I had hoped it would be (I mean, minus the whole recovering from surgery and not being able to move part). No laundry, no cooking, no need to even make the bed…but as the days dragged on my books became less interesting and I was running out of early 2000 sitcoms to binge on Netflix. It was official, one week into my “delightful retreat” and I was miserable. A phone call to my sister to lament my incessant boredom led right back into the same conversation we had been having for years. “You should watch Dr. Who, you would like it” was roughly her suggestion, to which I would always reply something along the lines of, “Lin, I love you, but I am not a geek like you! How are we even related?”

In my defense, my sister has always been an UBER geek with some book smarts nerding thrown in for good measure. We’re talking comic books, conventions, Star Trek, a love of all things ancient, the whole shebang. Hell, the girl now digs up dinosaur bones for a living (which for the record, is roughly the coolest job ever), but I digress. Needless to say, my sister and I were…. different. So when she once again recommended one of her geeky shows I brushed it off as easily as you would a stray hair from your shoulder. However, another week in of my bed rest purgatory and I was desperate. After yet another fruitless scroll through Netflix yielded nothing of interest, I gave in and typed the words “Dr. Who” into the search bar. To my surprise, the show had over 30 seasons, going as far back as 1963. Dear lord, that’s never going to happen, where the heck do I even start? Another call to my sister led to a lively debate between her and her husband about whether I needed to start with the 9^th Doctor or the 11^th (for you non-Whovians, the main character known as “The Doctor” is able to regenerate into a new body rather than die, because he’s from an alien planet, which is why you have different actors playing the same character for the last 50+ years). I’ll spare you the details around the two sides of the debate but in the end, it was decided that I should start at the beginning with the 9^th Doctor, which is when the series was rebooted in 2005. I scrolled through the throngs of Dr. Who seasons and clicked play, what the heck, I’ve got nothing better to do, right?

I knew it was all over for me when I found myself bawling, (the big fat ugly tears bawling) with a phone in my hand sending a text to my sister that said, “Stupid David Tennant just stupid died and I’m stupid crying over this stupid show. Stupid.” I was mad, and sad, and hooked. The geek deal was officially sealed when my sister convinced me to go with her to the SLC Comic Con that following spring because Matt Smith and Billy Piper (actors from Dr. Who) were going to be there. I’d love to tell you that I was able to retain a respectable level of non-geek superiority while walking the vast halls of the convention center, but that’s simply not true. An hour in I had purchased and was proudly wearing, a Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey tee-shirt and was on a desperate hunt for my very own 10^th Doctor, replica sonic screwdriver. I could write for days on the many, many reasons I fell madly in love with the world of geek in that short 3-day convention, but it all boils down to one thing, the people. Nowhere else will you find a group of like-minded individuals that, while they may not share in your particular brand of geek, are just thrilled with the fact that you are there sharing your passion, just as they are there sharing theirs.

Now, before you head off to do a google search on “wibbly wobbly, timey wimey” or “sonic screwdriver” let’s just circle back on a pretty bold statement I made earlier, that part where I said, “Geek is now a mainstream, multi-billion-dollar phenomenon and chances are, you are part of it, whether you’d like to accept that or not.” Simply put, geek comes in all shapes, sizes, forms, and mediums. That last Marvel movie you saw…where did those characters get their start? Comic books being read by teenage boys in their parent’s basements. And what about that collection of Harry Potter books you have sitting on your shelf? Where you one of the millions of people around the world that waited at midnight outside a Barnes and Noble for the last book to be released? What about Game of Thrones, were you one of the 8.9 million people that tuned in to watch the latest season premiere? Geek is no longer relegated to dark basements and out of the way convention halls. Geek is here, whether you like it or not, and so I say to you, go ahead, let that geek flag fly, no one’s judging.