The Geeks We Were

Most GeekMoms will acutely remember the moment in which we became moms. Be it the birth story of our first child, the moment we saw her during the adoption proceedings, or the day the lawyer met us at the door, small boy in hand, muttering something about an obscure cousin dying and a last will and guardianship. Those things are etched in our mind even as other things fade away.

But how many of us remember the moment we became geeks? What moment in time did you fall in love with something so deeply you knew it would be part of you forever? When did you realize that the things you loved were a little different and that loving them would make you different and, darn it all if you just didn't care? I asked these questions of the GeekMom writers and was met with enthusiastic answers. Just as you'll get the full run-down, gory details and all, if you ask a mom for her birth story, ask a geek how they became a geek and brace yourself for the onslaught.

While most of us admitted that in some fashion, whether we realized it or not, we were always geeks. Cathe Post beat us all by claiming she was actually a pre-natal geek. When her parents went to see Star Wars while Cathe was in utero, she kicked through all of John Williams music.

"Chaos" Mandy also started young as her dad read *The Lord of the Rings *to her as a preschooler. Later in life when she asked him if he censored it for his then-pre-schooler he replied, "No the violent parts are the best parts."

Most of us were coaxed into our geekhood by the entertainment industry.

Natania Barron, our editor supreme (no, that is not brown-nosing...), found her geekhood in a shell, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shell. She truly geeked out, purchasing every comic, figurine, action figure, and bit of paraphernalia. She memorized the lines of the movies and even woke at dawn to watch the cartoon. It was her first all-encompassing obsession and while others would overshadow it, she never quite got over her first geek crush on Donatello.

Corrina Lawson spun into geekdom via spinner rack comics. A reprint of Captain America, the issue of Justice League of American where Elongated Man joined the team, and The Legion of Super-Heroes ushered her into a lifelong love of comics. Batman and The Spook only cost her a quarter then but were so worth so much more to her. (Of course their worth so much more now, too...)

Kristin Rutherford discovered Monty Python's Flying Circus while visiting her aunt's apartment. It was a pure moment of happenstance that created an MP fanatic. She became obssessed, memorizing the bits and gags. The Monty Python films followed shortly thereafter as did the books and records. Even now she eagerly awaits the chance to share her passion with her own daughter.

Sophie Brown first gave her geek heart to X-Files. She has photo evidence of her room plastered in posters of Mulder, Scully, and the infamous flukeworm. As if she needed more proof of total geekhood, she even brought home life size cut-outs of the agents.

Andrea Schwalm had Lost in Space. She recalls being frightened by Mr. Smith. Even as a young child she understood that there was something very wrong with him. She played Lost in Space using her Fisher-Price farm set. COWS IN SPACE. That single show began her "lifelong love affair with scifi, outer space, robots and sociopathic baddies."

Others of us among the writing staff found our geek-out moments snuggly in the world of education.

This is where I land. As a student I was considered academically gifted thus allowed to partake of a secondary, advanced curriculum. In second grade I discovered that I was to be enrolled in a course on Ancient Egypt the following school year. I made my mom bring me to the library as often as possible. I devoured it all, including things from the grown-up non-fiction section, and by the start of third grade I could very nearly teach the class myself. One course introduced me to history. Twenty-some odd years later, I'm still doing my best to get acquainted.

Delphine Imbert served as a class representative at age nine. Her fellow representative was a boy and when another student verbalized concerns of his sharing the office with a girl, the boy replied "She's not a girl! She's a genius!" Delphine took that to heart and allowed that self-confidence to help shape her actions through her childhood.

Cindy Ortiz experienced her first geek-out moment in college...at age ten. Her tenth summer saw her enrolled computer classes. Though they spent quite a bit of their time doodling with paint, at the end of the class they were presented with a book containing their computerized art. Cindy recalls the summer as one of her best.

Yet others found a mentor that guided us, either on purpose or accidentally, into discovering (or accepting) our geekhood.

Amy Kraft was guided by her brother, five years her junior. She found early on that she much preferred his things to hers. She was only to happy to oblige when it turned out that he was just too young to do by himself things like build a Lego space station or rescue Princess Peach from the pixelated world of NES.

Patricia Volmer was guided by her dad, one of the smartest people she's known, despite his never going to college. Each Christmas he gave her a unique and distinctly geeky gift like a microscope, a chemistry set, a model airplane kit and others. Together they set off rockets and restored cars and he inherently understood how much she would enjoy all those things.

Laura Grace Weldon was guided by a friend of her parents. She was about ten and had always been very concerned about world affairs. When she discovered that this friend was an engineer at a nuclear power plant she confronted him, asking if the power was worth the risk. He patronized her, lectured her, and she lost any hope of winning that argument. However, he also inspired her. She couldn't have won that debate as she hadn't been armed with the necessary knowledge. She quickly learned the power of research and the adult section of the library. To this day she still thirsts for that knowledge. In her own words, "Geeks can't help themselves. There's always more to find out."

Of course we have all evolved. It is the nature of geeks to cling to our passions and many of have since our earliest days. Perhaps you can relate. Maybe you've connected with your favorite GeekMom blogger. Perhaps you find yourself reliving your own original geek-out. Please share. We've shared ours and can't wait to hear yours!