Am I a Nerd/Geek?
I pose this question to myself because I really think that I am, and now is the time to admit it. LOL. All my life people would call me a nerd because of many different things. I think it's because of my curiosity with Tech from video games to software. I remember being about 6 when I first used a computer at my school. It was the most fascinating thing I had ever seen. I came home and told my parents about it and how you could do all of these things with computers. My dad went to a used computer store and purchased a used Apple Macintosh. The big one from the 80's LOL. (Think Dunkin Checks In the movie). I wish we had kept it because maybe it would've been worth something. People laughed at me in school when told them we had an Apple. Can you imagine less than 10 years later they'd be as popular as every other PC. My first and only game was Paper boy and we had a joystick, it took these huge floppy disks. My mom is the kind of person that likes something for as little as a week before she gets bored with it, esp if it's not doing what she wants. I am a teeny bit more patient than that especially as an adult, as a kid forget about it. I didn't know what patience was. So although I was fascinated with the Apple Macintosh my dad and mom weren't feeling it just lying around the house. My mom takes some typing course and thinks she's a computer wiz so we buy a Microsoft Word Processor. It was a Monitor and typewriter. The screen had this humungous knobs for settings. But this was for my mother's use only. Unless I had HW she wouldn't let me get near the thing.
Eventually after my mom went through about 2 Word Processors (like I said nothing is ever right lol), and after my pleading to my dad we went to The Wiz and nobody beats The Wiz lol. By this time I was pretty knowledgeable about what type of PC we needed, but of course a 4th Grader is never really taken seriously. Through the misguidance of my oldest brother and my mom's so called knowledge of PC's we end up with a Packard Bell. I was finally able to use this PC, mainly because by now the internet became more relevant and because we didn't have it my parents got bored with it rather quickly so they stopped using it. I remember it being Windows 98 and I had tons of games to play on it. From Barbie, to math games and puzzles. I was in love with it. My parents also bought me a PlayStation so I was on fire on the Tech front. But the only people who loved video games then were boys and I didn't want to always be seen as one of the boys. So again I kept it a secret that I spent hours on my PS playing Tekkan 3 and owned every Twisted Metal game known to man lol.
Fast Forward to about 6th or 7th grade, when it became a must-have for every household to have the internet. Something happened where Verizon wasn't available in our area, my dad wasted all this money putting an Ethernet card into the back of the PC. It was just a disaster. I rarely used it except to type HW or play a game. But I always felt that if I were given a chance to play around with it I could figure it out how to get the internet. I knew how to do things with the PC that my parents didn't. I helped them with resumes, I set up all the software on our PC. It wasn't until HS and all of my friends had the internet that I knew I had to do something fast. Everyone had AOL back then so I couldn't IM people or check emails. I was so dramatic but I felt like I was missing out on everything. So with my dad's permission I started tinkering around with our PC. I took off the back panel and had like a moment that I'll never forget. There were so many things I could take apart and put back together. It was fascinating. I set up the internet over the weekend but just changing some settings and switching some boards in the back. Well I was able to set up the internet by myself, and for free. Booyow!! lol. When I went back and told my friends they weren't as excited as I was so I kept my love for tech to myself. Who wants to be seen as a Nerd, it was bad enough I wore glasses, and was an A/B student. I didn't like feeling as if people thought I was a GEEK/NERD. I know now it's okay to be smart and be in to technology because of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. But when you come from the hood, go to a Catholic school, middle class family, smart, people look at you differently. You aren't one if the "cool" kids if you were smart. So I just kept it a secret for years and put it out of my mind.
Through out the years I learned terms, took computer courses in college, fixed/installed software my own as well as for others like family and friends. All self taught of course. But that's how you used to learn things. Now we have YT videos that show and instruct us on everything from installing software to fixing our Android phones. It's just always been fascinating to know that I can actually be good at something and have people need my help for it.
I know my blog posts can sometimes be long winded, but I said ALL of that stuff to say "Don't Block Your Blessings". If you have a talent, that you can't escape from or something you love doing and are really good at but not quite sure if its right, still explore that and except that that is maybe who you are. You can't deny that feeling for too long. Oh it's going to come out one way or another. So I can now say it loud and proud,
I AM A NERD!!!!
That felt pretty good to say lol.
Just be yourself and don't change something in order to appease your so called friends.
Thanks for reading
Pynkstarr
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