My coming out story.

There are many people who I hold dear in my life that classify themselves as "Nerds."

Before beginning this post, I want to clarify exactly what these friends of mine love or do which causes them to associate themselves within the nerd category.

For the purpose of this discussion, nerds are those with a deep and intricate knowledge and love of any of the following either in combination or alone:

Anime
Comic Books (both Marvel and DC universes)
Dungeons and Dragons style role play games
Dr. Who (this is pretty recent, no one seems to watch the original Drs. that I watched on VHS in my home growing up)
Lord of the Rings (usually the Tolkien universe in general)
Pokémon (or is this also Anime?)
Sherlock Holmes (also recent)
Star Trek    
Star Wars
Video games

None of these things have ever been something I have enjoyed or sought out on my own (with the exception of Dr. Who when I was little). However, I seem to have a pretty extensive amount of information on each of these topics, due to the fact that I only seem to find friends who are usually themselves immersed in these cultures.

When I was a Freshman at BYU-Hawaii, a large portion of the group of friends I associated with was into a role play game called Realms of Glory. Many weekends they would gather and play tournaments for hours in the GCB. I had never been exposed to such a game, but luckily for me, many of the same friends hadn't either, so I always had someone to play with when these tournaments were happening.
Years later, most of those friends had left for missions for our church, or had transferred schools. However, I was still really good friends with the ring leader of the role playing group. In fact, we were coworkers, and a bunch of our other coworkers had gotten interested in role playing. We would meet for several hours on Saturdays to play. Well, I did like twice, because I really wanted to be included, but the activity held no interest for me at all, so eventually I stopped coming. Still! I know a LOT about role playing now.

Most of my large group social interactions throughout my life seem to function in such a way; I will try a bit of whatever nerdom my peers are passing around, indulge enough to know the way around it, and then excuse myself when I fail to find it appealing.
However, because these people are precious to me, I find myself defending their honour and ways.

Last Sunday Peter and I had our friends Dan, Sarah, Trevor, and Melinda over for dinner and games. We played the game "Celebrity" which is honestly one of my favourite party games ever. Educate yourself and thank me later.
One of the celebrities in question was Spock, a Vulcan from the Star Trek universe who famously salutes such. Throughout the game, Trevor and Melinda would Vulcan salute with their thumbs in, which is, in fact, an error. After doing it incorrectly several times, and having us all shout corrections, Trevor salutes, thumb in, only to have his wife yell,
"No! Don't do it like that!"
"Why?" he asks, confused.
"I don't know! But they all get very upset when we do!"

I do that all the time; I get involved defending a universe that I personally know nothing about, but have somehow picked up knowledge of through association.

Peter loves the DC world, and in looking for things to make our home more homey, I got very excited to see that someone was selling a Justice League rug, and tried to buy it for Peter. I have NEVER read a Comic Book in my life. I don't even particularly enjoy superhero movies, but I desperately wanted this rug, because I knew my husband would want it. I get excited over other people's nerdom, while quietly understanding something about myself: I simply don't care, and probably never will.

Somehow I feel like an A-Sexual person making sexual comments and joking about the topic even though privately holding the secret that I have no desire to mate.

Maybe my nerdom is nerds; I am attracted to those people who enjoy these things and want to be around them, even though I can't say anything about the topic being discussed, or do anything other than regurgitate shallow information I have heard from them previously.

So here I am, coming out to all of you, many of whom are probably super shocked by this: I don't enjoy Anime, Comic Books (both Marvel and DC universes), Dungeons and Dragons style role play games, Dr. Who, Lord of the Rings, Pokémon, Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Star Wars, or Video games. However, I like YOU. So, don't stop talking to me about these things, I totally wish I was interested, and I will fight valiantly to like it so that you'll still interact with me, but in my own time don't be surprised when you find me watching My Big Fat American Gypsy Wedding or any other truly offensive TLC show.

I hope you all can still love me. Even after this lame blog post.

P.S. To those of you who keep trying to claim that Harry Potter is a nerd thing. Shut your beautiful face. Harry Potter is a human thing. Everyone reads and loves Harry Potter. Those who haven't, just haven't YET. It's a natural occurring thing, and is quintessential to the age we live in. Stop trying to act like you're superior because you enjoy Harry Potter. You probably enjoy pizza and ice-cream just like every other sane person on the planet.