Prelude to a Geek.

Not everyone carries the Geek Card..  thankfully.  No one is born a geek…  unless we're talking about the circus version…    So at some point in life all of us found something that tickled that geek nerve… 

I think that at some point everyone is on a path to geekiness and there tend to be singular moments in our lives that push us over the edge.

First off, what does it mean to be a Geek?  I think there are multiple definitions really, and often it boils down to the same types of behavior.  Wether it's comic books or quilting…  a Geek is the person that takes their involvement, knowledge and devotion to the media or hobby to a near compulsive level. 

Your a Geek if;

•you can speak about any hobby or medium ad nauseum.  You will know this when the eyes of your audience glare over or they look at you like they can't believe anyone would love something that much.

•you constantly find your self correcting people when your beloved topic erupts in conversation…  this usually results in you trying to convert one or more non-geeks to your way of life.

•you are on a crusade to increase the mass of geekdom and often find yourself with a go to list of how best to initiate a member of the masses.  Finally converting someone usually causes you to go into Geek over-drive for at least a week if not a month.

•you get nervous in a group when your secret identity as a geek is exposed…  your fear of the term Geek is equal the pride you feel for being one.

At any rate, you know who you are, and Im wondering momentary event tweaked that nerve and changed your life forever.

I am a cliche.  My Geek birth was the result of reading The Hobbit in 5th grade.

Lets back up a little….   In some ways I was a geek sooner than that, but in truth, I think most kids are…  as a kid…  when you love something…  you LOVE something…  cartoons, comics… Dukes of Hazzard…  (I know…  I just dated my self.)    I was a comic book kid.  I loved them.  In the small town I grew up in, there was one place to get them.  Granny's Nook.  More a Curio for the elderly ladies of a farming community, Granny (Egg's Grandmother) also carried magazines and on the bottom shelf of the rack, she carried a hodgepodge of comics.  I can remember sitting in that shop, surrounded by the musky smell of old-lady perfume and small collections of wooden furniture cover in doilies, reading as many issues as I could…  since I could only afford 2 or 3, I had to narrow my options…. 

…but really,  millions of kids have similar stories, an not all of them make the leap to geekiness.

Flash forward to 5th grade.  I am a decent student…  like most boys, I enjoy math and science, struggle with spelling and English in general and can't seem to pay attention during social studies.  I wasn't  aware of it at the time, but I'm pretty sure I was in a reading class due to my lack of interest.  I didn't like to read…  the stories forced on us were dry and common place.

Flash Forward again to Christmas of that year (1982.)  I am a my cousin's house…  Doug is 2 years older and his geek drug of choice was Star Wars…  We sit down to play a game with my dad and uncle.  I belly up to the table and watch in awe as they open a Milton Bradley box up and start setting up The Dark Tower.  Dark Tower, an electronic Fantasy adventure game was an experience i had never had…  you wander the circular map of the game, fighting brigands and seating for treasure in hopes of finally defeating the evil Black Dragon.  On the 2 hour drive home, I could not contain myself and talked, to exhaustion, about how cool the game was.  I realize that in a way The Dark Tower could be considered the catalyst for my Geek, but in truth, it remained just a neat game and I mostly forgot about it…

My Dad had taken notice of how much I enjoyed the game, however and had decided I was ready for a true initiation.  Perhaps a week after the visit to my cousins, on a rainy winter Saturday, I was basically bouncing off the walls in sheer boredom.  My father, who was in desperate need of a break from my incessant yammering, handed me a worn yellowed copy of the Hobbit.  

"Here," he sighed, "I bet you'll enjoy this…  its kind of about a Dark Tower." 

I grabbed the book.  It stunk…  (I later learned to love that smell)  I thumbed the pages and saw how small the words were…  my immediate reaction was disbelief…

"No way!" I said, curling my nose in disgust.

"It's got a dragon in it.  You'll like it." was all my dad said as he returned to his work.

I read the back of the book and I assume it was enough to finish convincing me I should give it a try.

I sat down and started to read.  30 minutes later, I was actually enjoying the act of reading a book…  my imagination was being guided through the most awesome story I could imagine…  Hobbits, dwarves, trolls, and huge flying eagles…  I was loving it…  My mother actually had to pry the book out of my hands for dinner.

That was it.  I was hooked.  I loved reading from that point on, and couldn't get enough of it.  As my inner geek incubated, I started to find comfort in the world of fantasy and often dreamt about how much better suited I was to that life than my own.  That Christmas I Santa brought me the red Dungeons and Dragons box and before long I was desperately trying to get my friends to share in the wonder.

I'm still a geek and I can honestly say that, many of my successes in life are because of the Hobbit… my love of reading and thirst for knowledge have served me well.

When was your geek born?