I am a nerd.

I am a nerd. I’ve always been a nerd. I think I realized I was a nerd in middle school. My gawky glasses were getting annually thicker since second grade. This was the year when I started reading everything I could get my hands on from Encyclopedia Brown to Little House on the Prairie. I accepted being a nerd when I was 29. I dated a guy who said I was so curious and that being intelligent and being a nerd was super attractive. He’s long gone but I like to think that was his purpose in my life. (That and also he moved me out of an unsafe neighborhood but I’ll address that in another blog.)

I embraced being a nerd when I became a mother. After having my son and seeing him evolve into a little nerd, I love myself even more. It’s like when I first held him in my arms and was breathlessly adoring every part of his miraculous little being and I noticed the dent in his left ear that mirrors my own and how his tiny pinky fingers bent slightly inwards, just like mine! These are amazing and special things that make us the perfectly imperfect beings that each of us are. I accept and understand where I get being a nerd from- it’s part of my innate personality. I also believe that it’s a beautiful and aspiring personality trait. I’m proud that my seven year old son is on his third reading of the Harry Potter series and constantly has his nose in a book. Somebody who wants to learn more and know more and grow more is an evolving person. 

What makes a person a nerd? Is it a love for knowledge? Is it a love of reading? Is it the way they dress? Is it social awkwardness? By the way, I think I check or have checked all of these boxes. I also consider my need for knowledge something that makes me a nerd. Like I can watch a show with my husband and will watch the same show at the same time and he will walk away completely satisfied with the story line. But me? I’m like, well why did the character do that? Or, where do you think the producers are going with that? What do you think the cinematic undertones were? Understandably, I’m sure he gets completely annoyed with me.

For the same reason I started the Nerdy Gourmet. I always have questions after I finish books. I want to know more  and most importantly I want to feel more of the atmosphere that the author created (hence my love for all books with movie adaptations). I had just finished reading Where the Crawdads Sing and was so moved by the poetic world that Delia Owens described. I wanted to know what it was like to kayak. I wanted to understand the salt marshes and estuaries. I wanted to see a fire tower. I wanted to explore Southern food. And so that need evolved into an idea of traveling and doing things from the book and creating food from the books. I crave that kind of experience in addition to just simply reading a book. And I want to share that because I cannot believe I’m the only one. That would make me a freaky nerd. 

If you take anything away from this post, I hope it is loving kindness and an appreciation for exactly who you are. 

peace and xo,