At my high school, all Seniors are required to give a speech in front of the entire school (this works when each grade only has 100 people in it). I gave my speech last week and received mush praise, and not to sound like I’m bragging, but many people said it was their favorite speech so far this year. I have been agonizing for months on what to write my entrance essays on was wondering if I could simply cut down my speech? Here’s my first attempt ( I know the ending needs work):
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Who are those people? What are they wearing? Why are they dressed like that, I mean its not Halloween, and in public too? What freaks! Thats what they must be thinking, with those prying eyes, those awkward half-hidden glances, as if they were embarrassed for us. Though I had to admit the reactions of the little old ladies on the other side of the glass were somewhat amusing. Still, I thought to myself, maybe having our little get together in front of a wall sized window facing into a suburban strip mall wasnt such a good idea. I almost felt on display. Most of the bookstore patrons would peek in to see what all the fuss was about, then turn away as if we werent there. So what were my friends and I doing that was so eccentric, so bizarre as to draw all this attention? It was a book signing, which wouldnt have been so out of the ordinary, save for the fact that scattered among the attendees, were Jedi, stormtroopers, and the odd Princess Leia.
I must confess that I am a geek. I spend countless hours lurking on Star Wars message boards, I sew Jedi costumes in my spare time. And most embarrassingly of all, in the September 2003 issue of Star Wars insider magazine, of which I am a subscriber, a piece of fan art of mine was published. That, was a collage of none other then Jar Jar Binks.
But that night, in trying to balance my excitement in meeting author Timothy Zahn and my uneasiness in being surrounded by normal people I realized something profound.
A few years ago I remember seeing a credit card commercial depicting a balding, mustachioed, and beer bellied middle aged man shopping in a womens clothing store. He tried on earrings, red high healed shoes, and a pink flowery sun dress all the while receiving odd glares from the other shoppers. At the end of the ad, it was revealed that he was a member of the Hogettes; a group of Washington Redskins fans who attend each game dressed as female pigs complete with the before mentioned clothing plus blonde curly wigs and plastic pig noses.
Oddly enough, I felt a kinship with the Hogettes. Though our interests differed, we both had become inexplicably engrossed, and found joy in something other saw as useless and a waste of time. Doesnt everyone need to have something to excite them? Some little passion or vested interest to distract them from the monotony of everyday life? My so called geekyness was my outlet, and intrinsically no different from a love of math, literature, or music. Geek, and the negative connotation associated with the title for my passions manifestation, was simply semantics.
That night, I realized that anyone who has a passion for something whether it be Star Wars or Shakespeare, nail polish or Nietzsche, is at heart a geek. And even if others continue to taunt and ostracize me I can simply laugh it off, because I know deep down under any harsh exterior lurks a person with passion. Deep down we are all essentially the same.
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I think it mostly works, but my councilor said that Ivies look down on “geeks”. A friend of mine got deferred from Harvard last year and it was implied that it was because her essay was on the subject of creating characters for dungeons and dragons (She got in RD). Would this be viewed in the same light? My top choices are Columbia, Northwestern, and Reed.