Part 3: The College Years
3 of 4 in an on-going series
I was accepted in an honors program at a regional university about two hours from where I grew up, so I jumped at the opportunity. I was planning on going to medical school, and this university had a great one, plus it was a full four-year scholarship, so why not?!
I had a really heavy course load while in undergrad, but I still continued my search for Mr. Right Now and partied a bit. I started hanging out with some frat boys who convinced me to rush the sororities in the fall. I, to this day, still don’t think I was a good fit for a sorority, but I did anyway. In order to fit in at all, pretty much all geek-cred was checked at the door. My life was class, boys, sisters, tutoring, and drinking.
Yeah, I said tutoring. I tutored other students in Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics for $8/hour for almost two years. That’s the only shred of nerd I held onto outside of my academic life.
I eventually started dating a guy at the end of my sophomore year who would be the biggest mistake and best learning experience of my life. I was with this douche for almost four years! I was too blind to see it, but he was horribly controlling and emotionally abusive. I lost pretty much all of my friends. I only hung out with his friends who were as emotionally stunted as he was.
He made fun of anything sci-fi or fantasy that I ever mentioned liking, but it was okay for him to love Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and The Matrix. The only good thing to come out of this was he was really the first one to introduce me to video games. I played Mario Party for the first time. I was obsessed with Animal Crossing when he got a Gamecube. I even played some MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft for a while. My ADD got the best of me, though, and I stopped both after a few months each time.
We were living together when we had a horrible break-up my last semester of grad school. I had finally wised up to his ass-hat behaviors and was ready to get out. Unfortunately, I had to figure out where I was going to live, first. In order to avoid him, I sequestered myself in front of my computer for hours at a time when not in class and opened up my AIM. Old friends I’d used to chat with but hadn’t talked to in years were still on with the same screen names!
And this is how I got back in touch with the man I would eventually marry!
To be continued...
4 comments:
Wait, wait, wait - did he play WoW too? If so, he lost his right to make fun of anything geek/nerd the day his 10-day trial expired and he kept playing. WoW is completely built around fantasy and lore - without that there would be no WoW.
Sorry you were stuck with a jerk for so long - I know the feeling, although my jerk was just a lazyass.
You'll meet an awesome geeky guy someday - I <3 my geeky husband, granted he's more into sci-fi than I am, but it's fun to get into new things and share some of the same geeky interests too =)
No, I did meet and marry an awesomely geeky guy! It's just not part of this piece of the story. This is part three of four. This piece of the story ended in 2005. I've still got a five-year gap to cover!
PS- Thanks for the encouragement, anyway! :)
I believe before we find the right one we are stuck with a couple (a few? many?) wrong ones so that in the end we would know what's good for us.
But still... years wasted :(
Yikes, we had a lot of similar experiences. :) I wasn't so much a nerd in middle/high school as I was a run-of-the-mill dork. I was at the top of my class, yet somehow ended up at one of the only liberal arts colleges with a major party reputation. Sooo I spent 4 years balancing my school-y stuff with raging it on the lawn, hooking up with stupid boys, and shopping too much. Also fell into an emotionally abusive relationship, although it didn't last nearly as long as yours and I don't think left as much an impression.
So glad you've found someone right for you! And glad you've kept the geeky part alive, too.
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