Why Being a Nerd is Empowering

Why being a nerd is empowering… because being "me" gives lots and lots of stories! Why? Because I enjoy adventures!

I mainly tell my stories about how it feels to be different and how it’s empowering to be yourself, how I overcame previous challenges of being picked on frequently for being different, and I exclaim why people should never give up through (spoken word) poetry, which I’ve been writing poetry for about 7-8 years now. I post all of my poetry and writing endeavors, healthy recipes I’ve created, and much more on my blog that I have been actively working on for the past 2 years.

I have always been a nerd for as long as I can remember, but didn’t start embracing it until towards the end of my college career. I can also definitely say that on the outside, you won’t be able to tell how nerdy I am until you start talking to me because I generally dress pretty girly with my own flair of course. I started watching anime with my friend who lived on the same block and my twin sister when I was 10. We would pretend to act as the protagonist female characters Dragonball Z and go running around the playground pretending to shoot lasers from our hands. I was designated to be “Maron”, which that name is still carried with me to this day, along with my love for anime. I also just went to my first major anime convention this past May and I had a blast!

When I was 12, my best friend at the time and his older brother introduced me to web development and shortly after, my first website, “Anime Luvers”, was successfully launched with much assistance from my friend and his brother. From that point, I knew I wanted to be a web developer for the rest of my life, not even being aware that you can make good money and it’s very male-dominated. I went on to study web development at Illinois State University, graduated in May, 2013, and have now been at my job as a web developer for about a year now. I can’t see myself not doing web development or IT in some way for the rest of my life because I love it so much. Up until my college graduation, I was always a band geek and did band from 5th grade until the end of college, was a member of the anime club in high school, was a founder of the video game/DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) club in high school, played DDR actively, and was even the president of the club for IT majors during my senior year of college. I am currently very professionally involved in my field and have done my fair share of peer mentoring. I have also advocated to and inspired women on why they should pursue an IT or STEM career despite being a vast minority, been a professional mentor to 2 Illinois State University students in the IT department, presented an awards ceremony to high school girls who were being honored for their achievements in IT, and went to my high school to speak about why being in the IT field and a web developer are tons of fun!

After my college graduation, I was having a rough time transitioning into “adult life” and didn’t really have too many friends at home. My relationship with my family was also extremely rocky at the time, which was making the transition worse. On May 25, 2013, my best childhood friend who inspired me to be a web developer, passed away at the age of 22, 3 weeks before I started my career. His strong work ethic and passion for web development and nature will be in my heart until eternity! Without him, I don’t even want to know where else I’d be today because I am beyond happy with my decision to be a web developer!

Unfortunately in college, I became overweight because I gained a bit more than the freshman 15 in college… more like the college 60! A good friend of mine, who I met trying to recruit him into the IT club I ran in college, ended up taking me to a “belegarth” practice this past July. Belegarth is a boffer combat sport where you basically hit nerds with sticks and is very closely related to LARPing. He kept telling me how the people that he fought closely with in his “fighting unit” are basically his family and he always spoke so highly of them. After the very first practice, I was instantly hooked and have never looked back since. I had never been exposed to such a welcoming and nurturing community and was excited to continue attending practices and eventually go camping with everyone! In October, 2013, I met the person who ultimately ended up changing my life... not prince charming yet unfortunately, but the man who is now a dear friend of mine that’s been leading me towards living a happier and healthier lifestyle. I knew I had wanted to lose the weight for awhile and had several failed attempts at losing the weight. I ended up pursuing karate again as of January, 2014, which I had quit previously for about 5.5 years. Now, thanks to getting introduced to LARPing and it being an activity where you run around a lot, I am less than 2 belts away from black because I went back to the same karate school I was at before and was able to pick up from where I left off, I’m happier than ever and healthier than ever, and around 60 pounds since January, 2014 (basically all the weight I gained in college) and still going strong to attain the most optimal lifestyle possible. All of these positive changes and weightloss journey successes are thanks to being a nerd and being surrounded by other nerds where we can all embrace being totally weird together.

How is being a nerd empowering to you? Feel free to share or post your story somewhere :)