[Jon Stratis]

It's all about self perception. If you let the term nerd be a bad thing, it will be. If you take pride in your abilities that other people think make you a nerd, then it'll be good. If someone tries to call you a nerd in a derogatory way, it's pretty easy to say "Yeah, I am. By the time you graduate college, you'll wish you were, too!" I have my 10 year high school reunion coming up this summer, and as a result I've been looking up all my old classmates on Facebook and other social networking sites. Those "cool" jocks aren't all that cool anymore - they're off making minimum wage in dead-end, boring jobs. The nerds I hung out with are doing interesting things with great opportunities before them - heck, one gets to play with lasers all day!