It's a Great Time to be a Nerd

     Back in elementary school, I was the nerdy, awkward kid in a school full of jocks and overachievers. It was a brutal living, being bad at sports growing up. Those of us who grew up knowing sports was not our strong suit had to come up with other hobbies to occupy our recess time. I chose to spend my time reading, and playing with Magic cards. (Really old Magic cards. Like FML how did I lose those cards old.)

I always thought the alliteration of Hillcrest Hornets was fun to say.

    For a long time now, I've felt really sorry for my dad. He's a life-long jock who married a nerd, and had all nerd children. He's now in his 70s and can still whoop my ass at basketball. I once saw him play 3 rounds of 'Around the World' without missing a shot. He spent I don't know how much time and money on a concrete patio in our back yard with a basketball hoop. We almost never used it.

       But in middle school, I met up with other nerds my age.(Not to be a cliché, but it was in Band Class) Once I had my fellow nerds about me, things leveled out. And once my growth spurts started to slow down, I was even able to play soccer in High School, but none of the sports I grew up loathing.

    But towards the end of my high school years, nerdiness started to become more trendy. I like to thank that to 20th Century Fox(the first Tobey Maguire Spider-Man came out my Junior year) and J.K Rowling. Harry Potter was dragons and wizards right? That's nerd stuff!

    These days, the nerd industry has expanded to greater heights than ever before. The second highest grossing film of all time was Avengers: Endgame. Released in 2019, it made a whopping 2.797 Billion (that's with a B) dollars, and the entire last hour of the film is non-stop fan service.

    Big Bang Theory, a TV series about 4 huge nerds, was so popular it ran for 12 seasons. That's two more seasons than Friends (which I also love). Mainstream, A-list stars run podcasts about their D&D games. And a kickstarter from a well-known fantasy author recently became the highest earning kickstarter of all time, blowing the previous record away. It's a great time to be a nerd.