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Column: Smarts are sexy too

Written by Ashley Heywood, Senior Editor

“OMG, did you see that Robert changed his relationship status to single?” Completely meaningless. Calculus, physics, politics, arts, current events. All sexy. Entirely attractive. To me, any person who can actually hold a conversation and not bring up the infamous Snooki baby or other pop culture trend is more than OK with me.

Let me set the scene for you — a date with your new significant other where the two of you spend the evening discussing the pros and cons of future space exploration or expressing hatred for those who forget to add a constant after integrating. I get shivers just thinking about it. How amazing would it be to have an intelligent conversation with another person for once? Having to trudge through the day dealing with vapid excuses for conversation that only include biased comparisons of who is dating whom and which girl is a skank for whichever reason.

I admit I do talk about Facebook in public, and I confess to thoroughly enjoying Jersey Shore, but I am more than a pop culture feeding hermit.  People nowadays see intelligence as a form of weakness, using awful slander terms such as nerd, geek, dweeb and so forth, but I challenge you. I say, embrace the label and take it as a compliment.

Ten years from now how cool you were in high school based on your good looks and which girls you dated will mean nothing. Our nerds will be your bosses and CEOs, and that one little kid you never talked to because he was a dweeb might be the next Steve Jobs.

I cannot express how attractive intelligence is. I am not saying there is anything wrong with people who have less than perfect GPAs, but I want to convey to students that there is absolutely, positively nothing wrong with being a nerd. I love when people can share their turmoil for integration by parts and their love for synthetic division. I don’t care about who wore whom at the Oscars, but I do care about distinguishing correctly when to use who or whom.

When someone calls you a nerd, what they are really saying is, “I wish I could be as smart as you, but instead of trying to reach that level I will put down your achievements to make myself feel less like an under-accomplished dunce.”

So all you geeks, dorks, nerds, dweebs and weirdos unite! Do the right thing, embrace it!  I am a nerd. And I am proud.