The stereotyping of others in their individual groups in society such as a nerd or a jock have been a hot debate in the class for the past few weeks. Where do I feel I fit in? Well I don't think I really fit one. If I were to use most of what the readings such as American Nerd, I don't fit all the descriptions. Nerds were said to be un-athletic and only focusing on their school work. I for one believe that I am not completely a nerd. I love sports and have been told that I am very agile, which is something a nerd shouldn’t have. Do I focus on school? Yes because that is how I have been raised, school first except I try to play sports when I can. Those descriptions are just not completely accurate. A nerd has to be skinny? Has to be unattractive? Has to be poorly dressed? I will only agree that these would be general ideas of a nerd but not the true nerd. They are completely subjective to the individual who is declaring someone as a nerd. Does a jock have to be Big, dumb, but very athletic? Again like the nerd discussion, these are subjective but mostly just general comments on what people have said. Just one question then, where do the scholar athletes fit into all of this? Are they just a rare breed of books and brawn? Since they seem to possess a lot of qualities of both groups, who do they belong to? I think a jock and the reason being that, from what I have seen, it has been easier to join the jocks if you are good at sports. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, as long as you can throw a 60 yard touchdown pass, jocks will accept you a lot easier or will make more fun of you if you try to join a math league. Although this might be a special case in the world society, it is an interesting one at how things work.
But looking at myself in a deeper sense, I think that I’m a nerd, if I had to pick one, only because of my normal behaviors. As much as I love sports, I don’t think that I could ever be a jock. I would not fit that description because of my love of education. I believe that when I grow up, I won’t be playing any kind of pro sport. I am mediocre at best in most of the sports, but I never lose the fun of playing them, just like when I play video games. Even if I’m not the best I still give the game a chance because like a sport it’s a learning process.
Ever since I was a child, I loved computers. All the devices, all the things a computer has done for our lives, everything has been so interesting to me. Once our everyday items, like a phone, started to get smaller and smaller but in essence was a smaller laptop, I became hooked onto the topic of computers and machines. Machine was something the author of American Nerd had used to describe a nerd because of their love of machines and robots. Similar to the computer, robots have also fascinated me. I took a class on building them and now a class on building and programming them. It has astounded me to just how much one can do with a robot. Just look at the manufacturing plants. They have gotten a large boost in production speed thanks to robots.
I guess I do fit into the nerd description, but I may be a little different since I am not as unwilling to go outside and shoot some hoops or swim a couple laps in the pool. I am Proud for being a nerd because as the current history has shown us, nerds are needed more and more every day, heck; you may have not had that Iphone if it wasn’t for us.
