In talking about people and perceptions of people we knew from college w/ Rochelle I remembered an experience where I was confronted with someone else’s perception of me. I remember it like it was yesterday, we were walking back from Lilly Gym, after a dance, down the sidewalk just past Williams Hall and just before Hood Hall, small assorted 
groups of people streaming back to their dorms in the wee hours of the morning. I forget who i was with, but we were walking behind some girls from Joyner Hall, I believe, and I was being discussed, by Nikki and someone else, who were unaware of my presence. People always said my name as a unit: Stephencharles. I heard my name, i don’t remember the context, it was probably in respect to someone who i was dating, but Nikki replied, “Who, that Nerd?”
You know in the movies, where when there’s an earth shattering revealation and there’s a disorienting simultaneous zoom in/zoom out effect? that happened to me. A NERD? No! I’m not a Nerd! You’re mistaken! I wanted to defend myself. I was Greek, I was pretty active socially 
, my pockets were proudly unprotected, and I hadn’t even discovered the internet!
It kinda messed with me, being painted with that brush at the time because I was “smart”. I guess we just like to lump people into broad categories.
Stephen now lives in Greensboro, NC and is now practicing nerdity fulltime
It’s very liberating when you come to grips with the fact that you are a nerd. I accepted it long ago and I have been better for it.
Wear your nerdosity proudly. Nothing wrong with it. bg
Being a nerd kept me out of places most of my friends growing up now wish they had never visited, again, and again, and again.