This thought was spurred for me based on an exchange in the thread for the new Legion book:

I was called a nerd incessantly throughout my pre-college school years and for a long time wished I wasn't and hid my nerd enthusiasms from people; lived in the "nerd closet" as it were. In college though, in the early '90s, I met lots of other people like me who loved comics and games and couldn't care less about sports and other "manly" pursuits. I came to embrace the nerd label then (something my mother has never understood), reclaiming it much the same way as gay activists reclaimed "queer."

So, my question to the community is, when did you decide to embrace the nerd inside, if you have?

[Edited to attribute the quote to the proper poster]

I wobble back and forth. In my teen years and even in my twenties, I was the epitome of nerd.

Then came the party years, when I went back into the nerd closet.

I think I embrace that part now, but it is nowhere near my whole identity like it once was.

I'm not sure exactly when, but certainly by the time I made the career choice to become a librarian, I was no longer ashamed of my nerddom.

I stopped caring at some point, probably in college, when I decided I wasn't going to change who I was for other people.

I've never formally embraced it, except in a jokey way. It's what it is.

1984 when I saw Revenge of the nerds for the first time. I knew I'd found my people at last!

Seriously though, I was a freshman in college that year, and we had moved around A LOT as I was growing up, I was never, "Cool, " but I always had friends, some cool and some not so much. I've always been very aware of, and usually quite comfortable with my nerdiness.

Hmm... I actually consider myself way too much of an individualist to embrace such a stereotypical label.

Anyway, while I enjoy certain "nerdy" things, there's a lot of aspects of "nerd culture" that I really have no interest in.

In real life I tend to be more comfortable with creative, artistic types than your more stereotypical nerds. I'd much rather hang out in a coffee shop with poets than a comic book shop with gamers, for example.

But if you can get the poets into the comic book shop?

I wonder how old you have to be to be a nerd? That is, how old before you're capable of holding the sorts of interests that define "nerdy"? 'Cause I can't remember a time when I didn't see myself as one. Okay, that's not the word I used, but I had never questioned what types of interests I had. I never had to make a decision to not change who I was - I would never have considered that!

There are points where I embraced specific nerd interests and viewpoints that I previously hadn't bothered with (Star Trek, 1999) or consciously ignored ("being Japanese *can* actually make something cool", 2009).

But I think the most important change has been very gradual: realizing that other nerds are more like myself than I would have thought. For example, I would never have claimed to have invented fan fiction. When I wrote my first, I had never heard the term, but I had certainly realized the idea wasn't unique. What was disturbing was realizing that I came up with many of the fan fiction cliches without ever having seen them. And then learning that this is normal.

I don't worry about it one way or the other. I grew up reading comics, liking to check out library books on many different subjects, and practicing baseball four hours a day by bouncing a handball or tennis ball off the side of a barn until I could catch grounders in my sleep. But, I wasn't really a jock, I didn't do the usual high school cars, girls, rockandroll, and fightin' stuff, but I also didn't know every episode of Star Trek, thought Star wars was nice but...well...just nice.

I say...embrace being yourself. There are infinite variations and combinations out there from stamp collecting football player to rock climbing particle physicist. Why limit yourself?

My whole life, I was only a nerd in secret, when my immediate family could see it. I've always been pretty popular in high school and college, played hockey, been able to speak in public and be comfortable in large groups, etc.

When I got to college, I kind of moved past the 'being popular/cool' phase and let my artistic / nerdy / intellectual side show more but that was probably just a natural part of maturing. I don't think any of my friends would ever call me a nerd but my wife certainly would.

I'm nowhere near as vocal or over the top as my 'Cobalt Kid' personna, but I'm a people-person, both socially and at work. Sometimes 'nerd' has this anti-social connotation, so that was the first thing I thought of; but I don't think that's exactly what the thread is about. Besides comics, I'm really interested in history and random things like volcanos, the Sphinx, etc. I have a subscription to National Geographic. I like things like that, than say, rather, Star Trek. Different side of nerdiness?

Like some others, I like to think of myself as: cool, handsome, popular, intellectual, cultured and nerdy. You know, the best qualities of every possibly label you could give...like all of us should do!

Being the geeky outsider where I was growing up quickly turned into a badge of pride, because the school was divided into preppy jocks (it was a resort community on a lake, with a lot of rich folk) and 'aggies' (the children of the farmers who had lived and worked there forever). I had a few discrete friends on each side of the fence, and generally didn't have to worry about bullying, because I would help people with homework and getting away with stuff that they might not have been clever enough to get away with on their own.

But, despite living on a farm, I had nothing in common personality-wise with the 'aggies' (despite even going so far as to participate in rodeo!), and the jock/preppy types where just incredible jerks (although terribly fashionable), so I preferred the 'nerd' crowd.

Today, most of my friends play computer games, and love superhero movies, and either play, or have played Dungeons & Dragons. Life's been good to me. Nerds aplenty.

The most bullying I got in high school was because of my unmanly taste in music. I was totally into Duran Duran. Oh, the shame. I might as well have worn a tiara...

Even 'though I'm something of a metalhead *now,* back then, the 'stoners' who liked Black Sabbath and Nazareth and AC/DC and whatnot were incredible jerks to me, and I never got to really listen to their music, for which I totally resent them, causing me to miss out on many years of good music from Ronnie James and Ozzy and the like.

Still, as the consequences of high school teasing go, I'd say not knowing who Dio was until I got into college was a fairly tiny cross to bear. It's not like I got wedgied or swirlied or anything.

I think we need to define what a "nerd" is really. I mean, I've never been the horn-rimmed thick glasses and suspenders type nerd, but I know there is plenty of nerdiness in me.

I can geek out over some REALLY nutty stuff, but I'm not a Monty Python, Princess Bride, Dark Crystal, Dungeons and Dragons type geek.

NERD: It's such a broad term. I embrace my inner nerd and don't hold anyone else's geekisms against them (though I reserve the right to poke fun at them, and they can do the same to me).

Hat-backwards wearing *freak!*

Sorry, that slipped out.

I first encountered the word "nerd" on "Happy Days." It was an antiquated, '50s terms that somehow (probably thanks to "Happy Days") found its way back into teenage lexicon in the '70s.

I never identified with the term, though I was certainly unpopular due to my love of comics, among other reasons. It's interesting to me now to hear kids openly boast of being nerds, an unthinkable admission in my day.

See, now when I was in Elementary school, most of my classmates also collected comics so that was never an issue.

Far fewer collected comics when I was in elementary school, but enough that it wasn't a big deal. By high school I had no interest in comics, so it wasn't an issue then.

In fact, it was a fellow Elementary School friend's Mom who took me to my very first CBS!!

In High School, it never really came up. By college, I was hanging around such a plethora of folks and no one cared.

I tend to embrace the oddities of life. My hearts always been with the underdogs of society. I've worked several jobs in "real employment" instead of working for myself,and I invariably find myself being friends with the office black sheeps instead of the "in" crowd, be it the popular people or the "powerful" ones.

At this point, it's impossible for me to know where "nerd" leaves off and "normal" begins-- as regards both myself and the people I know.

I guess nerd is one part of my personality, there are other parts related to it (academic) but parts of it mostly unrelated (active, loves nature, religious). I find strange correlations between my religious activities and nerd activities. Nerd activities is given higher priority than the other for awhile, it levels off, and then I spend alot of time on religion. Rinse and repeat.

I think comic books appeal to the religion side of my brain, which probably explains my love of Kirby's Fourth World.

Not much into religion of any type. Not much of a joiner at heart. Takes something special to keep me interested. Guess thats why I like Legionworld.

Im not so much a nerd as someone thats interests don't follow the mainstream, a little goofy and geeky. I guess nerd would be the brainiac's, of which I am not.

We here on Legion World have transcended nerddom and are a new post-modern breed.

Post-Nerds.

heh...you said post...post-a-thon nerds!

I much prefer the term "Post Nerd" to the term "Post Whore" anyway.

You got it, Dev.

More geek, less crass.

I could learn to live with that.

I often use the word "nerd" to refer any area of my interest that I embrace wholeheartedly, for example, that I named my dog Hyfrydol (Hyvvie), after a hymn tune because I'm a choir nerd. I know many other choristers, many of whom are professional musicians (which I certainly am not), but none of them would name their pets after hymn tunes. That sort of says it.

And for the Victorian Flirting thread, there's always "Post Aesthete."

Hyfrydol is a great name! Why have I never thought of that?

Music nerd note: Rocky, have you heard "The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass" by Carol Barnett. Our community chorus performed it last night. Challenging...and interesting.

And my car is "Sine Nomine"! (Another hymn tune)

I have not heard that. It sounds interesting, if naught else.

Ya'll have nerdgasms, don't ya.

You don't?

I thought that was part of the questioning to get onto this board.

I faked it once in a roomful of Trek fans. I was just trying to be polite.

It's impossible to fake a nerdgasm. Normal people wouldn't have them, nerds would do them ironically.

That's just inane.

.. or... is it?

Duh duh DUH!

Give it a listen. It's classier than it sounds.

CATALOGING NERD.

That was me in college and grad school. I envy the folks who now have computers and no longer have to type 327 catalog cards per item.

COPY CATALOGING NERD.

har dee har

Is it a mark of nerdiness to be proud of how many ingredients I can cram into a simple dish like mac 'n cheese?

Depends on the ingredients.

This week's batch, apart from uh, cheese and pasta and the other customary ingredients contained:

Cayenne
Bitters
Worcestershire sauce
Parsley
Bacon
Green onion

Last week, I did a veggie version that had red onion and pickled hot pepper in it. Also, I use more than one type of cheese whenever possible. Single-cheese macs are for losers.

I like the way you cook. I have to do it boring for the kids...but for me, I always spice it up with whatever is around. Most of the time it doesn;t really make any sense.

Bitters definitely don't make sense. But once you shell out for the bottle, you're sort of obligated to put a few drops in everything you cook. It's how people like me who don't believe in higher powers can still confuse outsiders with quasi-mystic rituals.