Growing up Geek

I can’t think of a time I wasn’t a geek.

I’d say it all goes back to third grade.  That’s when everything geeky gelled for me, and there was no looking back.

I’d already become an overachiever at school–straight As, except for cursive handwriting-and more advanced than most of my classmates.  But some things happened that year.

Before third grade started, my family went on vacation in Florida, to Disney World and to visit my grandfather-he worked at NASA.  We went on a tour of Kennedy Space Center, although I honestly don’t remember much of that, but space has always fascinated me.  I do remember at some point talking with my grandfather about books and Star Wars.  That year, I forget if it was for my birthday or Christmas, he sent me three books–Frank Herbert’s Dune, Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation.  The last being the only one I wasn’t able to comprehend enough to finish.

Once school started, I made a friend who was as much, if not more, of a Star Wars fan than I was.  I had someone to be geeky with.

The really big thing for me-that was when I realized I wanted to write.  Did I know what I wanted to write?  I couldn’t say.  I just know that’s the first I remember thinking “This is what I want to do.”  I haven’t stopped since.  I don’t think I could, even if I wanted.

At some point, between third and fifth grade, I did realize I wanted to write fantasy.  Those were the stories that stuck with me.  Sometimes to the point of distraction.  I spent a couple years trying to find the sci-fi/fantasy section of the library so that I could find The Neverending Story.  I don’t know why it took so long, other than the librarians possibly didn’t understand I wasn’t looking for a children’s book.  I once made my family go from one video rental store to another, trying to find this older movie that had unicorns.  That was all I could remember about it, but we eventually found it–Legend.  I own both those, now.

Yeah, I’ve lost my train of thought. That happens a lot.  Need to work on that.

 

About Rachel

I'm a writer in progress, and in my day job I copyedit/solve puzzles.
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