December 17
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Nerd Encounters of the Surprise Kind
Nerd Encounters of the Surprise Kind
By: Meg Humphrey
For me, the best thing about being part of the nerd/geek/whatever community is sharing what you love with other people. It’s why I staff and attend cons. It’s why I make clothes for others to buy. It’s why I write for this Blog. My boyfriend has mentioned that when I find someone to have serious Star Wars talks with that my face lights up and I can’t stop smiling.
The audience at “Yub Nub: A Star Wars Panel” at Sakura-con 2012
I work at a fancy-pants law firm. As a whole, it is quite conservative and deals mainly in business, taxes, collections, and other more boring parts of law. The last thing I expected was to find another life-long Star Wars fan here.
I was dealing poker at one of our charity fundraisers. It was almost 9:00 pm, which is a big deal when you start work at 7:30am. One of our lawyers offered to take over dealing so the staff working the event could go home. I hesitated and my closest friend co-worker yelled at me “MEG, YOU SHOULD GO HOME.” At the outburst I had to explain that I had a commission to get done THAT night of a Marvel skirt. One of our newer (and younger) lawyers perked up at the mention of Marvel. He asked me more questions about what the skirt was and afterward he told me that his dad’s call-sign in Vietnam was Captain America. Being my favorite Marvel superhero (because JUSTICE), I was thrilled to hear his stories about his dad.
After the game we stepped aside and he asked me about my Jedi Council and Rebel Alliance tattoos. He said if he was brave enough he wanted to get Imperial ones. We chatted about with Expanded Universe books we’ve read and going to go see the Special Edition in the theater as kids. He told me about how after he proposed to his fiancé he had to tell her that he “likes Star Wars more than he’s let on” because he didn’t want it to be a shocking surprise. When we were leaving I said, “It makes me really happy you like Star Wars.” He replied, “Me too.”
Now I feel more at home in an office where I obviously stand out. This reminds me to believe in the Force – its energy surrounds us and binds us. And apparently it brings nerds together when you least expect it.