Cool to be a Nerd

Let's get the facts straight. I'm a nerd--not a dork and not a geek. There's a huge difference among the three terms. What that is, I cannot tell you. But there is a difference. I promise. And I am a bonafide nerd. I swear being a nerd is better for the social status than being a dork or a geek. I stand by that.

I wear this badge with honor. Coming to the nation's capital, I've quickly learned that the coolest people in this part of the country are the nerds. The talking heads on cable news, the so-called experts of their fields, the ones with a billion letters after their names; the bookworms who devour obscure journals for lunch; these are the cool kids on the block. It's a weird thing in actuality. In most places the cool cats are the ones who are fashionable, who are rich, who are fun, etc. But not here. And I want in on this club.

Being in graduate school forces one to be a nerd. That is my opinion. I should run a statistical analysis to confirm this hypothesis. On second thought, I barely got through stats this semester, so maybe I shouldn't. But in any case, reading hundreds of pages of scholarly articles and books a week for class and research papers make it pretty easy for one to become a nerd.

I wonder if I'll ever get to the level where news reporters, industry leaders, world leaders, community leaders, and others will come to me for advice on a matter I would specialize in. Not that that would be a specific goal of mine. But it would certainly be cool, no? Okay maybe not.

In any case, I love what I'm studying. If I can get paid like a real salary on which I could live off comfortably, I wouldn't mind being a student for life. I could sure live with becoming an expert on North Korea, an expert on nuclear proliferation, an expert on counterterrorism, an expert on human rights, etc. I have one more year, two more semesters with my program. Then it will be on to bigger and greater things, or so I'm told. Choices will lie before me. And I want to take the proverbial road less taken, the road of becoming a real life nerd in Washington D.C., a road full of white men in their suits walking around downtown looking all important. Okay maybe it's not the road less taken according to the standards of Washington D.C.

But regardless, I like being a nerd. I don't care what people say. It's cool to be a nerd in my book.