I'm dusting off my blog tonight to publish the speech I wrote and delivered to our entire student body and staff on the first day of school. (August 21, 2013). I'm pretty proud of it, and I got a lot of positive responses from it, so I figured I'd take it to the Interwebs. At least, my little corner of it.
Here it is.
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When
I was a senior in high school, I was a section leader in the marching band, the
captain of the Varsity Academic Team, and the President of Science
Olympiad. These three facts likely
lead many of you to the same conclusion:
DUDE.
McMilllan was a nerd in high school!
And it’s true, I was.
Unfortunately,
for me, being called a nerd always carried a negative connotation; it was more
often hurled as an insult rather than a compliment. But that was then.
I’m
envious of those of you who sit in these stands today because, in many ways,
the word “nerd” doesn’t really mean that any more. If anything, we’re living in the era of The Nerd.
I
don’t know when it started, and I don’t know who or what to thank for the fact
that nerds are now a huge force in pop culture;
perhaps
it was with the pilot of the Big Bang Theory, which enters its seventh season
this year,
or maybe
it was the creation of Tumblr, which allows ALL THE FANGIRLING of ALL THE
SUPERHEROES to happen,
or
maybe it was when ComicCon became a force of nature rather than just a
convention,
or maybe
its as simple the invention of the Internet, which has done a lot of good by
connecting a lot of people. Well, aside from holding all of the cat videos…
But
whatever it is, I’m glad it happened.
At
this point, I know what some of you are thinking: Um, nerds still aren’t cool,
McMillan. I am NOT a nerd.
Well,
I hate to break this to you but, yeah, ya are. And if you’re not, you should be.
Why?
Because being a nerd means being passionate enough about something to embrace
it with your whole heart. And
I’d like to think that everyone in this audience has something they love that
much.
Recently,
Wil Wheaton – of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame – was asked at a
convention why being a nerd is awesome.
He explained that “it’s not about what you love; it’s about how you love
it,” which is, in essence, why all of us should be nerds: because we should love
our favorites things so desperately that we have to talk about them and share
them with others. Which probably
explains why Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Vine are so popular: they allow
us to prove every day our love for whatever it is we get nerdy about.
Wheaton
went on to explain that it doesn’t matter what the “thing” is that you love: it
might be football, dirt biking, watching Disney movies in your Snuggie, Skyrim,
horseback riding, bodyboarding, Call of Duty, roller coasters, vintage cars,
programming computers – it could be anything, but, to quote Wheaton again, “the
way you love it and the way you find other people who love it the way you do is
what makes being a nerd awesome.”
You
see, it’s a human thing, this whole “being a nerd” business. As humans, we gravitate towards others
who share our common interests, and as such, we find a community within which
to “nerd out” – we find like-minded people to squee with or fistbump about
whatever it is we’ve just bought or found or read or windowshopped on Ebay or
Etsy.
So
whether you’re a D&Der, a Quidditch hopeful, a Padawan on your way to being
a full Jedi, a parkour ninja, a rugby player, a mountain biking champ, a barefoot
runner, or newly-minted Vegan; whether you get excited about a new leash for
your surfboard, or that new mouthpiece for your instrument, or that 38 people
liked the photo of your In The Mix you Instagrammed last night – hashtag last
fro yo of freedom – whoever you are and whatever you love, the way you love
those things, and the way that you reach out and connect with others who love
them, too, is essential to who we are as humans. It’s our survival strategy.
So,
this humble nerd in front of you today – the one who can’t wait for the next
season of Sherlock to arrive, and could watch 17 straight hours of Law and Order SVU without ever getting
sick of it, and who rereads The Hunger
Games once a year to stay inspired – is asking you to do one thing this
school year. Well, one thing in
addition to the whole “doing your homework, being respectful to your teachers,
getting yourself prepared for the world ahead of you” thing.
I
want you to embrace your inner nerd; embrace the thing or things you love with
your whole heart. And once you’ve done
that, I want you to seek out the other nerds who love that same thing you love:
seek out other surfers, other photographers, other people anxious to see how
the Twelfth Doctor will do. And TwiHards?
Maybe you guys get together and read Salem’s
Lot this year. Just a suggestion.
But whoever your people are, find them. Being involved in a group of people who will care about you
and support you in those things you love – whether its in an official club or not
-- is going to make this awesome
but sometimes kinda awful ride through high school so much better.
Because
here’s the thing. There’s no doubt
I was a nerd in high school, but that nerd trifecta I listed in the
beginning? I got to do those three
things with other people who were equally as passionate about them as I was – we
laughed together, cried together, struggled together, practiced together,
traveled together, won awards and lost competitions together, but most
importantly, we remained friends, even today, because we still share the common
vocabulary of our nerdiness.
So,
just one more thing in closing.
Lest someone decide to use this call to action an excuse to try to turn
the word “nerd” back into something negative, I suggest to those of you on the
receiving end of that nonsense to smile proudly and say, “Thank you.” Embrace it, because as Tyrion Lannister
explains to Jon Snow in the first book of The
Game of Thrones: “Never forget who
you are, for surely the world won’t. Make it your strength. Then it can never
be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
Go
be nerdy, ladies and gentlemen, and may the Force be with you.
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Sidenote:
You should really watch Wil Wheaton's whole "Nerds are Awesome" speech, found here on his blog: https://wilwheaton.net/2013/04/being-a-nerd-is-not-about-what-you-love-its-about-how-you-love-it/
