nerdiness and me

I originally wrote this essay for a college application to a college I wasn't accepted to. But since I didn't want to go there anyway, I consider it a win win situation. If you've read my "About me" section, then you know that I am going to Bryn Mawr in the fall--and the reason I'm going to Bryn Mawr in the fall is because the women there accepted me with this essay. This essay is me, and the reason it's a wild card is because it shows my passion unlike really any other story.

Nerdiness: A Wild Card

I am opposed to the word nerd. I prefer "passionate about something which others consider weird, socially unusual, or just plain odd". Sometimes I just want to read my book, and all I can think about is it lying on my nightstand, pages still flat and unread. I pace around the room when the next book in a series is not immediately available for downloading on my e-reader. The entire Eragon series? Yeah, I've read it. Three times. The Hobbit? Yeah, I saw it. At midnight. On my eighteenth birthday. Game of Thrones? Don't get me started; if George RR Martin doesn't hurry up and finish Winds of Winter, he's going to have a very impatient redhead on his front porch with a sleeping bag, because waiting out in front of Walmart on Black Friday is to "normal" people what Game of Thrones is to me. Santa brought me a two-pound backpacking sleeping bag this year, because it was the one of the few things I asked him for. I'm a nerd about camping and backpacking as well. No car camping for me - I prefer isolated, packing food in, and some serious hills, because the only way I feel good after a hike is knowing that I climbed up, not down. I look normal on the outside – no glasses, just contacts; no suspenders, or high-waisted pants; and definitely no personal computer that my eyes are always glued to, unless you count my iPhone (I don't). But if someone mentions a book that I've read, or a TV series I like, I immediately jump up and down and grill them on every single aspect, all shyness gone. I don't have to celebrate my nerdiness, since I celebrate every day, just by being myself. Words don't define me, but if they had to, I would say I was a "passionate person with varied interests usually in the realm of the unusual".