Don't Be a Fake Geek

There is nothing more refreshing in a conversation than an eagerness to engage and a willingness to learn.

One issue that I take with pseudo-intellectuals, hipsters, fake geeks and the like is this haughtiness mixed with half knowledge.

I have a broad range of interests. As such, I know a good bit about those interests, but there are areas where my knowledge is lacking.

What engages me immediately is when I see someone's eyes light up with genuine enthusiasm for a topic they are passionate about. They lean forward, they smile, they engage. Most specifically, on top of sharing knowledge, they will also ask questions.

We all started out as novices. I didn't start drinking beer until I was 27. No really. It's not until the past few years that I really got into learning about craft beers. I'm still learning. I love talking with beer geeks about their favorite beers, learning about knew beer houses that may have just opened or in a territory I'm unfamiliar with.

Nothing makes me want to leave a room faster than when a topic is struck, and someone leans back, smug smile, thinking about how they are going to 'educate' the room with their vast and often haphazard knowledge.

Even if you are an expert, you can share that without being a tool.

If you don't know, don't lie about. The geeks will know. Whether a history geek, philosophy geek, beer geek, comic book geek. And it's not because we're sitting down, writing out lists. It's because you learn about the things that you're passionate about.

So in your passions, be genuine. Love, learn, share, grow.

You

Good morning. You made it. One more day.

You're one day further from a history that haunts you. One day wiser from the mistakes of the past. One day further healed from the hurts that follow you. One day closer to that tomorrow you seek.

The road is not easy. With aching feet and tired eyes you struggle to maintain the path you set for yourself.

It might keep you up each night thinking about it. It may daunt you each morning as you wake to the new day's struggle.

These are hard times. Uncertain times.

You're going to question the world around you. You're going to question your choices. Your options. Yourself.

One thing you cannot question is your worth.

Regardless of the knocks and turns of this world and this life, you hold immeasurable value. There are people in your life who's day you brighten, who's world you improve, who's spirits you lift.

You may never even know the ways you improve the world around you. You might bake a delicious cake. Sing a song. Help someone take out their trash. Fix a car. Listen to a problem sincerely.

They may sound trivial alone, but together they add up to an immense good.

If everyone in this world did one small thing to make someone else's day better, every day, think of the immense tidal wave of good that could be accomplished.

And we do. In so many smalls ways. In so many grand ways we may never understand.

You may be tired and hurting right now. You may be planning a new life goal, trying to understand a calamity that befell you, or struggling with a pain that you try your best to hide from the world. But never question your contribution to the greater good.

Do good work. Be good to the people around you. You are contributing to this world in a way that only you can, and without you that void will never be filled again.

I may not even know you. I may not know the struggle you are going through right at this moment. But I want you to know that I love you. In this moment, while you read these words, we are connected. Even if you read them long after I am gone. We are connected. Together we can keep making this world a better place.

You are worth while. You bring a goodness to this world that can never be replaced, and I beg you to keep sharing that with this world, no matter how hard it gets. Because you have helped change someone else's life for the better, as so many have improved mine in ways they may never fully comprehend. In ways they may not even remember.

Keep struggling. Keep trying. Keep waking up to each new day, with all its trials and pitfalls, and keep making the world a better place as only you can. And smile with this knowledge and power.

You can do it. You already have.