This thought came to me the other day while we were trying to get my D&D group together.
We have been playing together for about 3 years. First it started out with us playing every Monday. Then because of work, it quickly became every other Monday.
Now, members of our group have babies, spouses, work, and social obligations and it seems that we only play once a month.
This is when I thought, are we getting too old to be nerds?
I miss the days of spending hour upon hour playing video games, reading terrible online sites like gawker, 4chan and readit, and sitting around playing D&D and reading comics until 3am.
Where did those days go!
How do adults fit in the time to be a nerd?
I have to admit some people have the opportunity to be nerdy in the workplace. My D&D group alone has two animators and a guy who works in television.
But still! If you ask them, they spend way less time on their hobbies then they used to.
I know this is just a part of life, but why does it have to be! I just started getting into nerdy stuff when I was 17 years old and have only had a good couple years at it. Is it getting away from me already?
It’s times like these that I dream about owning my own comic and gaming store, and no longer being a nerd stuck in a corporate body. Writing this blog has been a great nerd outlet so far, allowing me, every week, to spoon some nerd out of my brain and splat it onto the internet. It also demands time from me, which I am finding to be a good thing. I am trying to keep up with the newest trends, and constantly thinking about what I can write about next. I feel that this is my way of fighting getting older (thus having less time to be nerdy).
I try to let me comic nerd out as much as I can, just this past Halloween I dressed as She-Hulk, although many people thought I was a sexy alien from the original Star Trek show.
I also try to incorporate my adult and nerdy side together. Like my D&D dice bag for example:
Although I try and incorporate my nerdy side into my adult life. I find it’s even harder for me now with the move of the Silver Snail. In the past I was able to walk by their store on the way home from work and pick up the items from my pull list. But, now I have no local comic store, I have to go out of my way to get comics and so far that isn’t working for me. I know a lot of people don’t have a comic store on the way home, so my question to them is; how do you do it? How do you make the time to do the things you love, like go to a comic store and pick up your favorite books? I would also love to know the struggles you may have with staying nerdy as you get older and have more life responsibilities.
Never too old. Just gotta make time for it, like everything else that’s important in life.
I find it’s about scheduling time for the things you enjoy. As a person has more things on their plate they just can’t justify spending as much time on certain things. I have a group that seems to have a LOT more free time than my boyfriend and myself. Some of them only work par time and some don’t work at all. They get frustrated and we can’t drop everything and join for roleplaying, mmorpg time, and traveling for conventions.
We just need to be a little choosier about what we dedicate our nerd time to.
It seems you’re not too old to assign a label to yourself and your friends.
If they all call themselves nerds too, Scott? Most nerds refer to themselves as such with quite a bit of pride.
Father, husband, writer, collector, reader, cook. Which am I? All of them. To define yourself by one aspect of your life is to limit your possibilities.
I don’t think anyone said they only had one label
The article applied one label: nerd.
The label isn’t the issue here. The issue is time. Unfortunately we all have to grow up sometime, and being a “nerd” (or whatever label you want to pin on it) has to go. Sometimes comics are sacrificed so you can pay for diaper or whatever “grown up” thing you need to spend your money on.
The label is what it is, but eventually life morphs into something different, where being a nerd, or pursuing your lifes interests has to take a back seat to life itself.
Your labels you defined for yourself are labels you can never outgrow. You will always be a father, husband, etc. But eventually you have to outgrow your other labels which define you at this time.
I always say that “nerd” can mean so many things. You can be a cooking nerd, a comic nerd, a knitting nerd etc. It’s not a negative label it’s simple a way of saying you are obsessed, you know everything about whatever it is that you are passionate about. My article asks, are we to old to be as passion about our hobbies as when we were younger? But thats a little long if you ask me. My hobbies happen to be D&D and comics so that is what I wrote about. When reading it I hope you (Scott) input your hobbies into the question.