Why nerds are cool

The E tables contained the kids with Down syndrome. We sat at a D table, as low as you could get without looking physically different.

We were not being especially candid to give ourselves a D. Everyone in the school knew exactly how popular everyone else was. I know a lot of people who were nerds in school, and they all tell the same story: There is a strong correlation between being smart and being a nerd, and an even stronger inverse correlation between being a nerd and being popular.

Being smart seems to make you unpopular. The answer, I think, is that most smart kids don't really want to be popular. If someone had told me that at the time, I would have laughed at him. Being unpopular in school makes kids miserable, some so miserable that they commit suicide. Telling me that I didn't want to be popular would have seemed like telling someone dying of thirst in a desert that he didn't want a glass of water.

Of course I wanted to be popular. But, in fact, I didn't - not enough. There was something else I wanted more: to be smart. Not simply to do well in school, though that counted for something, but to design beautiful rockets, or to write well, or to understand how to program computers. In general, to make great things. At the time, I didn't try to separate my wants and weigh them against one another. If I had, I would have seen that being smart was more important.

I saw a group of guys dressed as the avengers… and they all had pecs! So, does that mean that nerds are now hitting the gym? Or are gym bods with jacked up muscles starting to get massively in with Frodo and the gang? Nerds are becoming like the cool kids and the cool kids are becoming like the nerds. Because, if everyone is cool, then no one is and if everyone is a nerd, no one is, right? Or are we all just posers? Does this mean we can all drop the labels and just be ourselves now?

OK, who am I? How do I feel? What do I think? Am I enough? Does anyone care…Whoops, i got there a bit sharpish. FB house promo. Being a nerd is pretty cool. Share this article via facebook Share this article via twitter Share this article via messenger Share this with Share this article via email Share this article via flipboard Copy link.

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