Geeks Like Me

August 11th, 2010 by 801red

I admit it I am a sucker for nice round numbers (except for anything with 7. As a seventh son I am partial to 7). Today is blog post number 600. Even more crazy is this is the 530th day in a row I have written a blog. I am not going to lie, I am a tiny bit proud of myself. For a blog with no focus, I like to think I have kept it fairly interesting.

More than anything else I am happy about the people I have met through my writing. I have spent much of my life feeling like the lone wolf on an island. I had one brief shining moment in college where I didn’t feel this way but the last 10 years my isolation from the community I love had grown thin. I blame only myself for this.

I took a job in a small town because this is where my wife works but I shouldn’t have let it dictate to me what my interactions with the world were going to be like. I used the small town as an excuse to hide from the world and my insecurities. I built up walls and then moaned about how high they were. I stopped writing.

Now it is almost two years later and I feel like I am starting to be part of something. I am a geek. I love Star Wars and comic books and science fiction. I can tell you the plot from beginning to end on some of the longest fantasy series in the world. I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer makes Twilight look like vampire light. I watch the Guild and think “those are my people”.

This blog has allowed me to become a better writer but it has also led me to people who share the same passion for all things geek (because lets face it. If you are incredibly passionate about something you belong to the geek tribe). Even better they are from all over the world. Some of them are musicians and artists and other writers.

Everyone of you is special and gives me the affirmation and courage to go on. It all started with a simple thought, “I am going to write a blog.” It has turned into two novels and a third on the way. It led to writing assignments on other web sites and finally to geek nirvana at the San Diego Comic-Con.

The funny thing is while I was at the Comic-Con I met so many wonderful people I thought my brain was going to explode into geeky goodness but it was so much more than that. For the second time in less than two months I met people who read my blog and loved it. They were not the least bit embarrassed to let me know either. It also led to an encounter with a brilliant woman who actually asked me for writing advice. She didn’t know it at the time but it was the best thing that happened to me at the convention.

So much awesome from playing with words. I don’t know where the next 600 blogs are going to lead me but I promise I’ll make it a fun ride. I hope you all will stick around and see where it takes us. Plus, if I ever do get one of those novels published you can tell your friends you knew me first. I raise my hands in salute to all of you geeks like me.

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