An introduction to Ms. Nerd

I am a self-titled "nerdy girl." I freely admit to all my strange quirks, idiosyncrasies, klutziness, and crazy behavior. In fact, I subscribe to three different grammar blogs for my own personal amusement. As if one wasn't enough, right?

I am currently twenty-nine years old, and though that may seem like a drop in the bucket to most people, it makes me cringe each time I say it, or think it even. I'll be thirty in precisely 6 months and I haven't accomplished any of the things I thought I would as a young idealistic high schooler. I had a veritable card catalog in my head of different fantasy lives that I would some day live out.

Of course I thought it would be uber exciting to be a secret agent with the FBI like Dana Scully, or vastly rewarding to be a kindergarten teacher with long flowing skirts and a delicate floral scent wafting around me as I reached each and every student, or super cool in a nerdish kind of way to be a famous architect with black rimmed glasses, or totally glamorous to be a best-selling romance novelist, or any number of other careers that seemed completely achievable at the time.

My mind was, and always has been, my biggest source of pride and self-esteem. Oh sure, I do love the fact that I am always there to lift people up and make them feel better about themselves, but that's a harder horn to toot for oneself. In every single class, I was that student with the perpetually raised hand. You know how, in movies, the nerd is always a little bit ashamed of their smartness and aware that he/she is always on the verge of a huge humiliation? I was actually proud of how smart I was and felt I could be even smarter, definitely work a lot harder, and maybe focus a bit more. I was actually confused by other students' dogged determination to avoid learning at all costs. I pitied them even. How could they not know how important all this information was?

I shake my head at myself now. So idealistic, so naive, so self-conscious about everything but learning. But, where was I? Oh yeah, twenty-nine with a master's degree and working as a high school narc. Welcome to my world. I hope you get some laughs!