Anything But Adult: Being a Nerd and Why We Really Win at Life

Do you remember your seventh grade teacher? Mine’s name was Mr. Young. He was that teacher whose career devolved from a passion for kids, to a source of income, to a game of survival where you count the long days to retirement. Thinking back on it, yeah, we broke him. We created irony out of his last name. I remember him doing paperwork at his desk one day while we watched a video for social studies class. “Why are you doing that?” I had walked to his desk, wondering why anyone could do something so ridiculous when there’s a perfectly good TV nearby. “Because they’re taxes, and taxes need to be filed,” he told me. “Wait until you’re older,” he said, raising the forms to show me. “This is what it means to be an adult.” That was the first time I ever thought about growing up, and God, it sounded horrible. I could see the stress causing him to bald in front of me, each falling hair with a different student’s name on it. Could it be true?

That’s when I made a promise to myself I would never forget what it’s like to be a kid. Lord, let me grow up to be anything but an adult. I can summarize the wonder of being a kid with one single belief: the belief you can swing 360 degrees over the top bar. The confidence that you can kick a little harder, lean back a little further, and pull the chain at just the right time to sail backwards over the bar and swoop back forwards for all the world to see. Sure you’ve tried before and it hasn’t worked out yet but that’s because you haven’t gotte…