Nerd vs. Norm

As many of you may know, I am a nerd. I have been fitfully unable to keep this side of myself repressed, or as they say, in the closet--it's just so hard.

I got into reading because my mother took me to see the Star Wars series when the movies were remastered or broken (depending on how long you had been a fan, and how hardcore you were.) After that I read and reread any book I could get my hands on. Starting with the extended Star Wars Universe and working my way into more adult science-fiction fantasy. Eventually I began reading literature and "real" fiction (despite the oxymoron therein) because my teachers told me to, and reading a lot isn't the same thing as being well read.

I've played at other things, like football and basketball, and truly enjoyed and excelled at them. I am, deep down, quite competitive. However, in Today's world, one can be just as competitive in the previously "nerd-centered" market of video games as in "real" sports (honestly though, golf, bowling and poker are now listed among those "real sports".) The difference being that the nourishment of choice tends to be anything that will help you stay awake and ply your "trade" into the wee hours of the morning.

Like all people who age, I've grown up, and therefore, in some sense, matured. I still go to the basketball courts and I still log into all of my favorite video games, I just do so now with that itching feeling that I had forgotten something.

Oh that's right, I forgot that I don't have a mortgage!

I suppose the point, in itself, is moot. We all play games or have hobbies because they're fun, because they give us a sense of relief or release from a world we feel thrust, largely unprepared, into.

I have a hard time seeing myself not reading geeky books and playing video games and attending conventions. But at the same time, I can't seem to see myself without football or basketball, a family and Thursdays at Applebee's--the currently mainstream and accepted things.

My personal battle really comes down to my entire dream/goal of writing for a living. Do I split blogs? Do I write one on Logic Fails about all the nerdy, geeky and "Star Warsy" goings on and keep this "the Dave Effect" more open to things in politics, sports, Oxford Commas, and life in general? Do I go for freelance or sports journalism and leave the world of comics behind, to other minds that have already made it? How do you balance a plurality of goals within goals and dreams upon dreams?

I think the answer (probably) lies in following the footsteps of great men like DaVinci and Danny DeVito, (yes, I made a Renaissance Man joke) and just doing everything I want to. Or at least trying.