The science nerd is a truly misunderstood and unfairly maligned creature. After all, all of us probably know a science nerd. Some of us might love a science nerd. Many of us may even be science nerds (I know I am). But how many of us have taken the time to truly celebrate what it means to be a science nerd?
Drifting in an ocean of their own curiosity, science nerds find comfort and joy in the minutiae that surrounds them, passionately embracing all things novel and arcane. To the science nerd, the world is indeed a curious and fascinating place with an endless number of possibilities.
As long as the world has been evolving, science nerds have examined and dissected various aspects it with the fascination of a child. Early in life, he or she (sometimes a she, but more often than not, a he) finds comfort and joy within their own heads, feeding that seemingly bottomless pit that hungers for knowledge, devouring information as if it were sustenance. In a lot of ways, that is exactly what it is.
Call it fate, or call it dumb luck. Heck, you can call it whatever you want, but don’t begrudge the science nerd for having found his calling in life (his so-called raison d’etre). Once bitten by the bug, science nerds can spend countless hours devoted to the subjects of their fancy, happily lost chewing on their thoughts. Science nerds just want to be left alone to follow their own interests. We should all be so lucky, for what better way to look at the world than with eyes of wonder?
Unfortunately, it is not unthinkable for the science nerd to live his “charmed life” while neglecting other aspects of it, namely appearances and social graces. This may not be viewed as a problem when the science nerd is a young child. If anything, it will be viewed as cute or charming, a first step to junior’s academic life that invariably thrills mommy and daddy to the bone. But knowing that we live in a complex world, and with people being inherently social creatures, science nerds have to, at some point, come to the painful realization that living one’s life in the vacuum of their own heads is not always simple or even desirable.
Especially if a science nerd looks and acts a little differently, which is often the case. Sure, science nerds may incur a few bumps and bruises along the difficult road known as puberty, but one thing that can never be taken away from them is their love of learning. It is, like their mother’s love, something they can always count on.
Adolescence, however, can be an extremely bumpy road, and it is not unheard of for a science nerd to compromise or even forsake his or her passion in the interest of fitting in. Sometimes a science nerd needs to employ such survival tactics to simply survive. Fitting in, after all, is not unlike nature’s brilliant survival mechanism, camouflage. Fortunately for science nerds, however, most of them are incapable of denying what their souls hunger for, and ultimately stay true to who they are. I say fortunately because, while being a science nerd might make you stand out like a sore thumb when you’re young, and consequently make you a target, if you can stay the course, good things await you.
Keep in mind, being popular (or just being accepted) and all the other good things in high school end the minute you graduate. No exception. Life is about looking forward, and you can’t see the road ahead if you’re constantly looking back. The science nerd, having spent a life nurturing skills and interests that they can pursue as adults, and after perhaps having a turbulent high school experience (for the most part) that they hated, might be better able to look forward with excitement and embrace the world of possibilities that the future holds. They are, in this regard, better prepared to live the rest of their lives.
One need look no further than the current state of the world. Those same science nerds who collected bugs or wrote computer programs in middle school are now working at jobs that interest them, and getting paid for it. Some of them are even making obscene amounts. Knowledge is, to quote Francis Bacon, power.
Unfortunately, there are plenty of examples of science nerds who simply cannot handle this power. Some of us just never got over the time when the class bully stepped on our glasses or ate our potato chip collection, and when given a position of authority, we ultimately abuse it. Having worked in the medical and biological sciences for over twenty years, I’ve experienced this firsthand.
But the abuse of power is hardly the sole provenance of the science nerd. And at least as adults, this abuse can take a more civilized tone, i.e., they won’t beat people up. Not that they could, even if he or she wanted to.
So all science nerds should take time out of their day, everyday, to celebrate being a science nerd, which simply entails living your life doing what you love to do-learning. A science nerd should never lose this enthusiasm because it will serve them well later in life. That you can count on.
And when you’re in school, sitting alone eating your lunch, reading up on the life cycle of an amoeba, you might be wishing that you could hang out with the football players, or the cheerleaders, or various other assorted popular people. But remember one thing-it’s not necessarily a good thing to peak too early in life. High school, and even college for that matter, shouldn’t be thought of as your happiest moments, the best years of your life, as they say, because where does that leave the rest of your existence on this planet? Is it all downhill from there? No way!
It is therefore imperative to live your life to the science-nerdiest-fullest. Stay true to who you are and approach every day as if there were an infinite number of possibilities, because there are. Life, in the words of Henry Miller, is indeed a journey of discovery, and nobody knows this better than a science nerd.
