nerding out with a hundred beautiful nerds

This week I’m at 826’s national Staff Development Conference, a welcome breath after many days of worky work. It’s been a pleasant roller coaster ride of inspiring speeches, helpful workshops, information overwhelm, and good chats with universally awesome coworkers. Topped with a sprinkling of my own white fragility because I like to swing between wild fear that the government is coming for my little queer family and unproductive worry that I Am The Problem. Blah blah blah. But I know this: 826 is the right place for me. That’s a good feeling.

Anyway, one of my favorite parts was when poet Nate Marshall asked us to write a variation on Idris Goodwin’s “A Preface.” I riffed on my one true identity.

Nerd on consent.

My parents were nerds

which is to say they studied hard and delayed

gratification

or their gratification was in sacrifice

but also knowledge.

They are not to be confused

with academics,

because they went to state schools.

They are not to be confused

with tech geeks,

because it was the ‘50s.

My dad’s eventual career

with lasers didn’t exist

when he started college.

He wanted to be rich

and maybe today he’d invent an app

but in the ‘80s he invested

in real estate which in the ‘80s was

a thing a middle class person could do.

They weren’t fan-kid nerds

because they were lonely.

I’m a nerd

which is to say in middle school

I made lists of ways to become popular

and failed.

I have never been quiet, although

I will always be shy

and clouded with doubt.

I wear glasses. I am a striver.

I will leave you with this moment

from The Last Days of Disco:

Josh: I love the idea that there’d be all these great places

for people to go dancing

after the terrible social wasteland of our college years.

Tom: You’ve been to a lot of discos?

Josh: No. In fact, practically none.

For me, law school wasn’t easy

and I haven’t had much of a social life

since coming to the City, either.

But, I still consider myself a loyal adherent

to the disco movement.