Speak Out with Your Geek Out
Speak Out with Your Geek Out is an online event that gives us geeky people a chance to eliminate negative stereotypes that have been heaped upon us for...well ever. I think this idea is fantastic and I am excited to participate in it even in an unofficial capacity!
My Story:
I think deep down I always knew I was a geek as a child but I fought that nature tooth and claw. It seemed easy for a while to pretend I had no interest in things like fantasy novels, or drawing geeky things or video games...that is until I met other people that liked it too. My geekery started with books and oddly enough not with fantasy but youth horror like RL Stein's Fear Street. This some how or another led me to one of my favourite authors Tamora Pierce who writes fantasy youth novels with female leads.
I had a hard time meeting new friends for a couple of reasons one major one being because of how often I moved as a kid, books became my friend instead and I would frequently hide away and read for hours and hours. I didn't get into some other geeky topics until I was a bit older.
As kids we had a Playstation that I occasionally played but gaming really didn't get started for me until I got the Gameboy Colour and Pokemon Red. Oh yes, I was and still am a Pokemon geek. After that I got a new Pokemon game every time a new generation was released and when it changed to the Gameboy Advanced I got that too and then again with the DS Lite. I grew up hiding my love of Pokemon from everyone except my little brother who used to play with me.
The last big leap into geekiness I took was in middle school when I met my best friend and she introduced me to anime. I had unknowingly already fallen in love with anime when they started showing it in force on YTV and Fox Kids, shows like Digimon, Escaflowne and Gundam Wing which were all on around the same time in my childhood. My best friend broadened my anime horizons and introduced me to Subtitled anime and I haven't gone back since.
All in all it took me a long time to become comfortable with telling people about the things I was interested in and when I finally did I was shocked at the amount of new friends I made through these interests. Some of the people I met through similar interests have been life long friends and have led to learning about new and exciting geeky things! I truly regret hiding what I was really like as a child but we all know how terrifying bullying can be and at the time I was afraid of just that.
To all you young geeks out there I would just like to say please don't be ashamed or afraid to be Geek and Proud! Your interests are shared by thousands of people around the world and in this day and age of social media and online communities there is always the chance to meet a new friend that shares the same interests as you. I would also like to add if you are being bullied or picked on for ANY reason, there are people in your schools and communities that you can talk to, you don't need to be a victim to it.
Lastly I would like to mention if you take a quick look through my journal (the entries are few and far between) you can get a quick glimpse at all things I love and I should warn you they are quite varied. I am terrible at updating here so many of the things I like haven't made it onto my journal yet BUT in honour of Speak Out with Your Geek Out I am going to make an effort to post about something geeky I love to do or watch or read etc. every day this week!
My Story:
I think deep down I always knew I was a geek as a child but I fought that nature tooth and claw. It seemed easy for a while to pretend I had no interest in things like fantasy novels, or drawing geeky things or video games...that is until I met other people that liked it too. My geekery started with books and oddly enough not with fantasy but youth horror like RL Stein's Fear Street. This some how or another led me to one of my favourite authors Tamora Pierce who writes fantasy youth novels with female leads.
I had a hard time meeting new friends for a couple of reasons one major one being because of how often I moved as a kid, books became my friend instead and I would frequently hide away and read for hours and hours. I didn't get into some other geeky topics until I was a bit older.
As kids we had a Playstation that I occasionally played but gaming really didn't get started for me until I got the Gameboy Colour and Pokemon Red. Oh yes, I was and still am a Pokemon geek. After that I got a new Pokemon game every time a new generation was released and when it changed to the Gameboy Advanced I got that too and then again with the DS Lite. I grew up hiding my love of Pokemon from everyone except my little brother who used to play with me.
The last big leap into geekiness I took was in middle school when I met my best friend and she introduced me to anime. I had unknowingly already fallen in love with anime when they started showing it in force on YTV and Fox Kids, shows like Digimon, Escaflowne and Gundam Wing which were all on around the same time in my childhood. My best friend broadened my anime horizons and introduced me to Subtitled anime and I haven't gone back since.
All in all it took me a long time to become comfortable with telling people about the things I was interested in and when I finally did I was shocked at the amount of new friends I made through these interests. Some of the people I met through similar interests have been life long friends and have led to learning about new and exciting geeky things! I truly regret hiding what I was really like as a child but we all know how terrifying bullying can be and at the time I was afraid of just that.
To all you young geeks out there I would just like to say please don't be ashamed or afraid to be Geek and Proud! Your interests are shared by thousands of people around the world and in this day and age of social media and online communities there is always the chance to meet a new friend that shares the same interests as you. I would also like to add if you are being bullied or picked on for ANY reason, there are people in your schools and communities that you can talk to, you don't need to be a victim to it.
Lastly I would like to mention if you take a quick look through my journal (the entries are few and far between) you can get a quick glimpse at all things I love and I should warn you they are quite varied. I am terrible at updating here so many of the things I like haven't made it onto my journal yet BUT in honour of Speak Out with Your Geek Out I am going to make an effort to post about something geeky I love to do or watch or read etc. every day this week!