That’s right. I’m a geek. I’m a PROUD geek. I wasn’t always proud to be a geek, though. It was a label that was put on me unwillingly. Why is it perceived as such a bad thing to be a geek?

geek  Slang – noun: a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, especially one who is perceived to be overly intellectual. dictionary.com

 When I was a kid, I wasn’t popular. But, it wasn’t because I was a jerk or anything. Nope. It was because I was smart and wore glasses. Fortunately, by the time I got to my senior year of high school, I figured out that I was pretty awesome. It turns out, once you embrace who you are, mostly everyone else will, too.

And that’s the hardest lesson for kids to learn - no matter what generation. Everyone is so busy dying to fit in that they forget to look at how amazingly awesome they already are. I have been lucky in my life to find people who like me for being who I am and not making any apologies for my inner geek. I’m embraced for my brains and sometimes even looked up to (which is still really strange to me).

The thing that really stinks is that no matter how hard I try to tell them, my kids are going to have to learn the hard way that they are awesome. They are going to battle with self-image and self-esteem like every other kid. They already do. My not-even-four year old tells me that she doesn’t want to wear that because it will make her look “funny” and kids will laugh at her. No matter how much I tell her that she should just ignore them, deep down I know that I’m not even making a dent. She is going to have to realize somewhat on her own that she is amazing and that anyone who doesn’t realize that is totally missing out.

Thankfully, my youngest has not encountered this yet, but I know she will. Kids are going to make fun of her fused tooth, because that’s what kids do. She won’t realize that some of the world’s most successful models have things about them that are not considered “traditionally” beautiful. She will hide her beautiful smile away and feel insecure.

Hopefully, my girls will have the epiphany that I think most of us have in our 20s. I hope that they realize they are beautiful and that the world is lucky to have them.

I guess the point of all of this rambling is simple – The world will label us. It is up to us to embrace our “label” and ourselves. God made each of us the way He intended us to be and it’s really quite arrogant of us to think we know better than He does.