Birth and Rebirth of a Nerd

I am a nerd. Maybe dork is a better term since I only did mediocre in high school. As a kid, I always found myself doing things I liked because I liked them. I largely ignored my peers' opinions, and really couldn't care less about what adults thought. But I didn't blare my awkward leanings either. I just quietly did them. I composed music lot. I did math puzzles. I loved reading classic literature. I loved poetry. I wrote. I drew. I could never stop building or making things. I observed nature a lot. I skipped class a lot to do my whims ... to the point of almost failing out. If I was interested, I'd excel. If not, I didn't even bother trying. And if I didn't like my teacher - forget it.

My AP Chem teacher and I had a mutual disdain for one another. I repeatedly told her I hated chemistry but loved bubbleology as I washed the chemistry dishes. It drove her nuts, so I nettled her more. Her husband, my Earth Science teacher, pushed me toward engineering. I didn't really like his class either, but he let me make stuff in class ... how tricky of him ...

So I chose Mech. E. in college because I'd get to make stuff. I like making stuff. All kinds of stuff. Out of anything. My formal training as a nerd began. My junior year, I was surprised to find out bubbleologists are real (technical term: two phase fluid dynamics) ... and I wound up in grad. school .... studying bubbles. I didn't go to grad. school because I was ambitious or super smart. I went because it seemed fun ... a lot more fun than getting a job, in fact.

I stopped practicing engineering when I had Seth, and I have been moved from the world of geekery to the world of parenting. And while you don't have to be removed from geekery to be a parent, some how I just got that way. Only about 10% of engineers are woman, and most of them work. I moved across the country and none of my new friends were stay-at-home-engineers. Some of them are wives of engineers, but they don't share my love for all things nerdy. And over time, it became socially inappropriate for me to call up my friends' technically inclined husbands to go out for a beer - especially sans children. In the beginning of my staying at home, I was met with blank stares when I'd make engineering related comments. I'd follow with some feeble explanation. But slowly I morphed into a publicly "normal" stay at home mom.

But here is my confession: I am a nerd-incognito. At home, I still veer toward to the dork in me. My children know about incipient boiling. They know all sorts of random trivia facts about phase changes and have seen countless fluid flow videos on youtube. I can only read so many novels and watch so much drivel while on bedrest; I have started surfing the internet for "interesting" things. I guess the argument that it is drivel, albeit geeky, could be valid.

Today, my geeky tendencies have been rebirthed for the public to see. I found the blog of Vi Hart (http://vihart.com/) and fell in love with her videos of Math Doodles. Her perspective on art and music are interesting .... for what they lack in quality, they gain in freshness. So amuse a poor engineer on bed rest and go check out her site. Heck you might even watch them with your kids, if you have some. Show them the positive light of being a geek ....