Thank you to Jill, at Mind of a Mouse for writing this hilarious post! You may remember, Jill is the one who wrote last week’s fabulous letter, campaigning to get this highly sought after gig.
Hello Cheeky Readers,
For today’s session we are traveling back in time, way back, keep on going… stop! Too far… forward a bit. There. We’ve arrived in 1989! The era of Big Hair and Acid Washed Jeans. A time when Cool kids were Cool and Geeks were Geeks and there was no overlap between.
They were only friends for a day, On Monday everything went back to normal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Picture me, a five-foot nothing, 98 pound weakling, with a secret love of all things Fantasy. Now, being a girl, I could get away with this to an extent. Plus, I was really small, and often overlooked, literally. On second thought, don’t bother picturing it, here’s a real picture instead.
This is my senior homeroom class picture, it must have been really early in the morning. No one is smiling.
I realize now, of course, that no one was paying attention, (because really – every teenager in the known universe is too busy worrying about themselves to notice the people around them) but I developed a few strategies to hide my geekiness and I will share them with you now. (You never know – Doctor Who might go back to being uncool again, someday.)
1 – I’ve had bad eyesight since I was born – but do you see me wearing glasses in that picture? No. I am also not wearing contacts. They hurt my eyes. (I probably couldn’t see the photographer.) Glasses were a sure Geek indicator. But it is easy to hide that problem by memorizing floor plans and by following other people’s feet. The floors in the school hallways had a blue line that ran along the sides. At every door – the line took a turn into the entrance. All I had to do was keep track of the number of doors to get to the next class. Easy! Who needs glasses?
2 – The sad fact of Fantasy Fiction is that the book-covers are such a dead giveaway to geekdom. They invariably have a Wizard casting a spell or, worse a Dragon, emblazoned there for all the world to see. But I have a solution to that potential embarrassing problem:
3 – Toys and other paraphernalia. Now, most high-schoolers don’t carry toys around with them per se, but there is an obligation to have ‘neat’ things on your person, or in your locker. Personalizing a looker was – and still is – a way of showing who you are to the world (Again, a world which is not really paying attention, but I digress) A popular item in the late 80s was the Troll Doll. But what I liked was pewter Figurines of Wizards.
Cool
Not Cool
Can you see the difference? I can’t.
So what did I do? What would you have done? I bought the darn Troll Dolls, of course, and I left my pewter figurines at home! Duh.
Sessions over! Time to go back to the future. Back to the world where I can read Game of Thrones in public with pride. Where I can have conversations with people about Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica and The Avengers without having to whisper. It is such a good time to be a Geek! I hope it never ends. I really don’t want to go back to walking into walls for the sake of looking cool. :)
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I thought the pewter stuff would have been wayyyyyy cooler, or was that just me and the geeks, of which I was not one
=)
eeeeeewwww…. I didn’t know you were a geek… I think I hear my mother calling…
Oh be nice!
Just teasing… you know I am crazy about you… don’t stand so close….
She’s an awesome writer, geek or no. You should check out her blog!
I am just so busy…
I was never smart enough to be a geek
Hmm… I never thought being smart was a requirement for geekdom. =) I know a lot of dumb geeks!
you have given me new perspective
Thanks for being such a gracious hostess, Cheeky!
If I was really a gracious host, I would have done this a different way, so you would have had access to the comments all day, and had seen them in your own reader. What a maroon!
Thanks for such a fun post!
Not a big deal, it’s easy enough to come over to your page.
I’m glad you liked it. You bring out my funny side!
Reblogged this on Mind of a Mouse.
And now geek culture is popular. The world’s turned upside down!
I know! I just hope it lasts!
If those Avengers movies keep doing so well at the box office, then I suspect it might
LOVE troll dolls and geeks!
Me too!
Breakfast Club was my daughter’s absolute favorite movie! I am a bit of a geek too! Luckily, hubby likes Supernatural, Fringe, Doctor Who, etc. too!
My boyfriend is the one that got me into Doctor Who, it is one of the many ‘geeky’ things we have in common. =)
My husband is a gamer a pc tech and a repairman. Ultimate geek! He was cool when being geeky wasn’t.
I love this — when teenage embarrassments transform into nuggets of pride as you age; it seems so.. FAIR.
I’m sure I won’t embarrass you further by pointing out that you very much resemble Anthony Michael Hall in that class picture. Yeah, baby.
In college, I had a math teacher who, no joke, looked exactly like a troll doll. Not the hair, but the face.
Erma Gerd! Are you kidding? That’s hilarious!
Totally serious. She was the small woman with a large head and a troll doll face.
Oh my gosh! It’s no wonder you two get along so well – you are sisters! If I closed my eyes to read this, I would have thought Cheeky had written it.
Sorry I missed the fun on the day you wrote this, Jill. Really great job guest blogging. 