I work with a lot of smart people. I also happen to know a lot of smart people. This is not bragging about all the smart around me but more so to convey that I, often self-proclaimed “decently smart” (yes, I know that isn’t helping me here) am not often The Smart One in the room. I can be one of the smart ones, and sure we all have our little pieces of intelligence we know better than anyone but overall, not so much.
This also goes for my geek qualities. You see, I will openly and often admit to my dorkdom. This is usually done by knowing something ridiculous like what song John Denver sang to close his show at Red Rocks in 1975 or by dancing in the car. Sometimes, I’ll get a little to excited about my dorkdom and call it “being a nerd.” This, however, is not good because a dork is not a nerd. A nerd is more like a geek, and I am not. I think geek implies some form of extra special intelligence and as we all now know, I merely have my moments rather than full-on genius.
It’s okay, I’m happy with this. Really, I am. (No, Mom, seriously I AM.) For one, it allows me to have a respectable social life and two, I do not live in a basement nor do I forget to shower. Well, mostly. And we also all know that is the line crossing from Nice Intelligent Geek to the holy-crap(s)he-is-forty-two-and-has-(s)he-ever-even-been-on-a-date Geek.
I share all of this for a couple of reasons. First, here’s a little secret: I have geekly aspirations. Honestly, I do. The little bits of geeky stuff I learn every day just make me want to learn more. So, I have done that a little. And while I won’t bore you with what I’ve learned at work let me just tell you that yesterday I officially learned how to repair something with code by “going through the back door.” And while you either a) don’t see the big deal or b) are thinking of all the crazy google hits that are going to end up here now, let me tell you, it was kind of fun. Because this makes me more computer geeky, which is a good thing.
I know I talk about career aspirations and how the work I do now is not the work I want to do forever but I’m all for learning. I’m all for moving up on my own version of the geekery ladder. And let me just say, it’s pretty cool. There are all kinds of geekery ladders I’d like to climb in my lifetime, but if the difference between moving forward and not is either using what you already have or sitting and waiting, I’m glad to be using it. Pretty geeky, eh?
So thanks for getting through that. It feels good to maybe not be a geek but at least talk about my geek wishes and hopefully, someday very soon, share the fruits of my geekage with you, right here. Or some place like it.
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