I’m a science nerd. I’ve been one since I was a child crawling around the back yard. My mother used to take alot of naps, so I pretty much foraged for myself, discovery-wise, not food-wise. I started off liking bugs, ants especially. I would sit out in the woods for hours checking out where the ants were going, where they were coming from, and what they were doing especially. I like bugs today, in fact, I have a tattoo of one on my back. There is always joy with science, earth science, biology, nature, astronomy, oceanography, and every other type of science there is.
I don’t know what the math portion is of the science since I’m not very good in math, which has been a challenge for me because I wanted to be a marine biologist as a child and math is important when dealing with this form of science.
Unfortunately because Mathematics is so important with specializing in science, I have been forced to go another route in my career choice which was in the medical field. You would think that with medicine there is math, which there is but in nursing, we can adapt to our dyslexic tendencies in the math that we do. In fact alot of nurses and doctors and others in the medical field stink at math, which is always a challenge in this field of science. Many right-brained people, (who most likely are left-handed) are extremely good in science because this is the portion of the brain which is used most and we science nerds can appreciate this portion of the brain the most.
I get thoughts in my head at times of the ‘what if’s and whys’ and sometimes I don’t pursue them. Many scientists have this block- a writer’s block of science where you have an idea but you don’t know where it’s going and what to do with it. I still like bugs today, but now I pursue them with photography. I seek them out and find out what they are doing and focus on their task at hand so others can see the beauty in nature that is sometimes overlooked. Sometimes being a science nerd is good and sometimes it’s bad, it’s good because I can appreciate all the nature shows on television and understand pretty much what the topic is and where the story is going.
It’s bad when you have a theory but don’t pursue it because of constant procrastination and disorganization. Nerds are usually sloppy people who understand their disorder and know where everything is and what they’re doing with it. We are the clutter kings and queens and we are always fighting to clear out the cobwebs.
Speaking of cobwebs, I leave them alone because of my appreciation of bugs, I respect their lives and what they are doing, and in each corner of my wall is a Daddy-Long-Leg with a pile of ants at the bottom of its web. For visitors, they are appalled by the lack of hygiene of our house because they don’t understand the reason behind the webs. Daddy-Long-Legs are supposedly one of the most poisonous spiders but because of their tiny amount of poison they have, they are in no way a cause of worry for humans. I do draw the line at Brown Recluse and Black Widow Spiders, I respect their beauty and primal fear health wise and will remove them or possibly flush them accordingly.
These are my joys and challenges of being a science nerd. My husband and I both appreciate a good nature show and we would rather watch it then watch the news at times, unless the news is science-related.
Most of our friends are science nerds on some level. I don’t think we are ostracized in today’s world because of the world’s need for people to be ecologically astute and informed.
