Geeklings, today is Thursday, and I know I usually don’t write on Thursday (my mind needs at least one day to rest) I’m bringing you a very special edition of I Am Geek. Continuing in the mold of guest writers I have recruited a friend of mine, Eric Landro, who is an aspiring writer. I’ve read his fiction and I’ve read his pieces where he displays his crazy passion for movies and hockey, and he has been one of the people of been keeping tabs on for when I Am Geek expands. So I thought it would be a good idea to reach out and have him submit something.

All I’m going to say is that the piece is terrific. I’m not going to give too much away cause he wrote it for your eyeholes not for me to summarize but I’m looking forward to more contributions from Eric. And I’m not ashamed that this post got me a little misty eyed… Great stuff Eric! Welcome to the I Am Geek family…

What It Means To Be A Geek

 

Hello Geeklings (love that intro), thank you all for tuning in to this installment from I Am Geek. When Kevin approached me with this opportunity to write for this blog, I was completely honored. I have been a Geekling since the start of this great endeavor and I couldn’t be more excited. However, underneath the pride and excitement, there was a layer of apprehension once the job was accepted. I had no idea what I could possibly write about. Seriously. I began to question whether or not I qualified to give my opinions about various geeky topics. My knowledge of comic books goes only as far as the amount of articles Kevin writes on this blog, where I can then pawn off and pretend I know what I’m saying while I’m with my friends during Captain America: Civil War.

So I begin to panic. I begin scraping at the bottom of my empty, non-geeky brain and finally said to myself, “Let me try and define the term “geek” and see where it takes me.”

This took me back to the first time I spoke to Kevin. Most of you probably don’t know this but Kevin used to be my boss. He had just started working and I never had a chance to speak with him. One night, I was in a deeply moving conversation with a friend of mine about the show LOST. This was during all the hype and the show was in full throttle, becoming arguably the most talked about show in history. So we were in a discussion, and since I was confused 98% of the time during that show, I was probably wondering what was going on. My friend usually shared the same confusion, so our conversations were basically a series of questions with no answers. Enter Kevin.

Out of nowhere, a face like the one above popped up and interrupted our game of 20 questions. Kevin then proceeded to not only answer all our questions, but even elaborated on theories, flashed us back to character flashbacks, shared his very own theories, and did this all with a big smile on his face.

It was this passion and love that demonstrates what I Am Geek is all about. I had it all wrong. To me, the word “geek” has always had a “comic” connotation to it. But here, in I Am Geek, it isn’t exclusive to comics. To be a geek, you must have a passion and love for the art of characters and story telling. It doesn’t matter if you’re engulfed in the artistic graphics of comics, binging episodes of a new series on Netflix, or letting our imagination take hold while reading a Stephen King novel, the story is what we crave.

Stephen King has become one of the biggest inspirations of my life. The Stand sucked me in from the very beginning. Stephen King has such a care and finesse when it comes to handling characters. I was so connected to Larry, Stu, Nick and Fran that I felt I was part of this novel. I was shuffling my feet through the deserted highways of the post-apocalyptic world King had created. I had severe anger and irrational thoughts towards Harold. The Stand wasn’t a novel I read, it was an experience I went through. My life can go through peaks and valleys, and The Stand fell into my lap at the perfect time.

There’s an excitement when you first start a brand new story. It’s like the beginning of a new relationship. You learn about their past, their quirks and their mannerisms. Stories poke and pry you, take you to new places, expand your horizons and nourish your brain. It can bestow wisdom, like when Sean told Will on the bench that he was a “scared, shitless kid”. It can bring tension and fear, like when Walt warned Skylar that he was the danger. Stories can bring you laughter, like when Andy put Leslie’s symptoms in the computer and told her she could have “network connectivity problems”.

So this is where my thought process concludes. I understand what this blog is truly about. For me, it is why I am so drawn to it. We love stories and we love to celebrate them. So I am proud to say… I am a geek.