Nerdiness and apologizing

Nerdiness/Nerdery: (noun) The topic of which you have an excited, effusive knowledge

People of my acquaintance spend a lot of time apologizing. It's not just women, either; conventional (dated) linguistic wisdom will tell you that women are more likely to use "hedges" ("It's just my opinion, but...", "Y'know...", "I mean...", and finally the clincher, "Sorry, but...") to facilitate social interaction by making their speech less threatening. Perhaps this is the case in some instances. In my experience, however, everybody feels the need to hedge, apologize, cringe away when they get excited about something, especially if the present company hasn't already been determined to be equally excited. 

Put another way, People are nervous to squee and flail about their fandoms.

And this needn't be the case. I say it so often to my friends that I'm considering commissioning a line of t-shirts: "Don't apologize for what makes you happy." "Don't apologize for your passions." "Don't apologize for being a nerd." [1] 

Sure, I may not be as interested in whatever as you are (bridges, video games, crop rotation, Latin, and art, to name a few real-life examples of things-people-nerd-about-to-your-blogger), but that's okay. I'm glad to learn new things - I've got the linguistics and the Whedon nerdery covered. Teach me about something outside my norm.

And it's not just my friends that go around apologizing for the things that excite and engage them; I do it too. Just this week I was sitting on my sofa, flailing about Shakespeare (natch) to someone who, while perhaps not quite as enamored as I, nonetheless appreciates a good turn of words - which makes my embarrassment even more silly. I was caught up in hunting down Asimov quotes[2], explaining my thoughts on why Friar Laurence is a gem among men, merrily advocating the oft-discounted history plays, digressing into why metered poetry is so powerful [3], finding the video of Tom Hiddleston performing Once More to the Breach...and in the middle of it, found myself backpedaling, apologizing for the effusiveness and rapid-fire excitement, biting my nails and feeling slightly ridiculous.  

So I say to you, mysterious reader, as I say to myself and my friends: Don't apologize for what makes you happy. The world is a dark and terrible place, sometimes, but it's also wide and wonderful. Let people see what's wonderful to you.

xo, 
Devo


[1] I read so much tumblr, I feel obliged to make this caveat: If what makes you happy hurts somebody else, NO. I do not support that. 

[2] "There is no reason to speculate as to whether Hamlet was really mad or only pretending. Of course, he was pretending . He says so. Nor is there any mystery as to why he was pretending. It was an extremely sensible thing to do..." Asimov, refuting 500 years of scholarly debate on whether Hamlet's insanity was genuine or feigned. 

[3] From Anatomies, on why the heart is the seat of love: "Its pulsing rhythm may underlie the pleasures of the iambic metre in poetry and the beat of rock music. Or if you prefer it articulated in slightly less pedantic terms, here's the internet. (profanity warning)