WE ARE THE GEEKS

I think I was a born geek. I learned to read at age 3. English is my first language.

I cannot recall a time I was never a geek. Strange things have always fascinated me, sometimes to the point of mania. My life has revolved from one geeky, semi-socially acceptable interest to another. When I was eight, I was ENAMORED over the animated "The Real Ghostbusters", collecting stickers, stationery. I would religiously watch episodes on Channel 2 every Friday night, listing down the names of the ghosts they busted in my little notebook. In high school, I was hooked on the X-Files after watching episode 3--"Squeeze"--which featured a liver-eating immortal man. I wrote letters to the stars, joined fan clubs, squealed at TV shows, bought magazines. you name it. My obsession lasted two years, then petered out when the storyline got too confusing. After a very bad break-up with an ex, I distracted myself from heartache by indulging in Anime. 24- hour anime watching marathons, blowing a month's pay on new pirated discs of the latest Japanese anime, cosplaying...

Alas, people aren't kind to geeks like me. I was constantly ridiculed in grade school and high school because I was never interested in the things that my classmates liked. Called names, made fun of...I cannot recall the number of years I've spent eating my recess snacks alone, dismissed and lumped together, named in the same breath with the class weirdo; a pale, thin girl who talked to plants. To make matters worse, my sister was immensely popular. Class cheerleader, Crush ng Bayan, pretty and poised. In other words, my exact opposite.

In college I "found myself." More precisely, I discovered that I was no pushover. I was not weird. I was not the butt of jokes. In fact, I found out that I was pretty cool. And pretty hot, too. Geeks of the World, I daresay that I discovered that the GEEKS RULE THE WORLD. We are the Arbiters of Cool. We declare what is in, what is hip. what is cool.

Who first mourned the death of Superman before people started wearing "Death of Superman" logo-ed T-shirts that sprouted everywhere? The Comic book geeks did. Who eagerly anticipated "Meteor Garden," the live-action version of the anime "Hana Yori Dango" before the rest of the Philippines caught on? The Anime otakus. Who were the first people who distributed pirated versions of "The Ring" to the underground scene before the Americans bastardized the damn movie? The movie geeks.

We are ostracized because people fear the unknown. We are so fucking cool that we are ahead of our time. Play with your Heroclix, prance in your costumes, worship Stan Lee. To all closet geeks or geeks in denial, I say, damn convention. Stand tall, stand proud. We are the the mighty, the few. WE ARE THE GEEKS.