Unification by Nerd

[Meowzer]

Here is a bit of a story leading into a possible discussion?

I went to highschool in a very small rural town, and the cliques were amazing huge. Now I was definitely part of the metalhead/gothy clique my freshman year..Yet one day in the morning in the commons I was digging through my backpack for some crushed homework and had put out a few deckboxes on the table to clear room in my cluttered disaster of a bag. And then a fellow wearing tight levi's and cowboy boots comes up to me and very tentatively asks..."Are those magic cards?"..And of course highschool drama cliqueness of me made me scoff at him as someone who was going to make fun of me for it, but I am a proud nerd so I said.."Damn right they are"..And Then I got the most unexpected question..."Want to have a game?"..And being in such a small town where not a lot of people played I happily agreed.

And through the years my group of friends all of us coming from different stereotypical highschool cliques came together to geek out. From MtG to D&D to Console games , comic talk, arguing over anime and manga, or just sharing good fantasyor scifi books. And it is something that I am still astounded by today, how truly unifying nerd/geek culture can be for people and how much it bridges gaps. It is something I owe having some of my best friends to now..So if anyone wants to share thoughts or stories, feel free. Or if you wish to just shake a fist to my sentimentality that is also welcomed.

[Navarre]

I used to be the Residence Director for a college residence hall. The entire football team had to live in my building, along with enough other males to fill up the 400 student capacity.

Consequently, there was a lot of testosterone running rampant in that building. It was a constant struggle of the jock hierarchy to see who would achieve the top-dog positions.

I had a dozen students working in my office but also four Resident Assistants. These RAs lived with the other students and were responsible for helping them with various issues and keeping order.

The RAs were usually a mix of football players and non-players. It just seemed to work out that way.

I interviewed several applicants one semester and hired the ones I thought best for the job. One of them, a linebacker around 6' 6" and 280 lbs. was talking to me shortly after being hired.

He said, "I don't say this around most of the guys but I'm kind of a geek. I like comic books and my favorite show is 'The X-Files.' I know you're into that stuff too and I think it's pretty cool."

So we talked and became buddies, at least from that angle. Because of that, I got to know the football players much better, which was never something that would have happened to me in high school.

A lot of mutual respect was formed across the board among all of us. And it all began with that one student who finally felt in a position as an RA to open up to me.