The Geek Chronicles: Part the Second

| Monday, April 26
Part 2: In Which I Become Too Boy-crazy 
(A Continuation of Part One)
image /via

In high school, I continued my closeted geek activities, joining the school Math Team. I eventually made it into Mu Alpha Theta, a math honor society. I wasn’t the greatest math nerd on our team, but it was fun.

I also was a bit of an obsessed German student. I loved learning the language and culture so much, that I took it upon myself to independently further my studies at the library. You must remember, in the mid-nineties, there wasn’t much Internet. I used AOL for chatting, basically, at that point. I was a painfully active member of the German club and was even president for two years. I happily brought home countless ribbons and trophies for our state German competitions.

And I was a band nerd. I played flute, piccolo, bass clarinet, and contrabass clarinet. I have to say, though, at a school my size, with a band that size, it wasn’t horribly nerdy. I just gave up any hopes I ever had of being recognized by the “in-crowd.” Instead, I became a popular girl in the band crowd.

That had some perks, let me tell you. They’re called boys. Suddenly, I was getting lots of boy attention, some wanted, some unwanted, but by fifteen, I was SERIOUSLY boy crazy and couldn’t stop. Mid-nineties pop-punk and boys became my new, more mainstream-accepted interests.

Every once in a while, I’d indulge in something geeky, like a Star Wars marathon with the cousins, but I had subconsciously moved out of that stage.

7 comments:

Emily Jane said...

And you moved back in?? :)

Kara said...

Obviously! As the story will continue... :)

Melissa said...

This is so eerie -- it's like reading the story of my own high school life (but replace "German" with "English lit" and "pop-punk" with "John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Ben Folds, and Guster"). I still geeked out with my friends over Homestar Runner and horror movies, but my main hobby was obsessing over boys. Can't wait to hear about how your geekiness was ultimately restored!

Amber said...

I was also a closeted geek (and played the flute and piccolo!). The fact that I played varsity sports sort of masked any geekdom though and I guess I was kind of lucky because being in the band was actually kind of a cool thing at my school.

I'm with Melissa. Can't wait to for the rest of this story!

Eleni said...

I played the flute! Never learned German, though, which is a shame because I went to Berlin last fall.

There are so many paths by which to arrive at the same place...It's fun to learn how you got to the geeky, nerdy place that you are. Maybe some time I'll share my geek origin story.

Tabitha Wells said...

I think I became even more of an apparent geek in high school. I was also boy crazy, though I didn't seem to get the attention in return.

Heather said...

Liebe! Hey, that's one that I know! Zer gut!

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