I once had a Microeconomics professor who called impossible things "unicorns." One day, I took up an assignment for the university student newspaper about nerd culture on campus. Little did I know that I would be researching just that: a unicorn.

It was a typical Monday evening in the newsroom of the Trinitonian, Trinity University's student-run newspaper. We were holding the weekly meeting in which the staff brainstorms article ideas for the following week's edition of the paper. The first step of the meeting involves the Editor-in-Chief asking each staff member whether they have any ideas for the upcoming edition. The designated person will give a couple of ideas, section editors will take note of them and the EIC will then move on to the next person.

"How about nerd culture on campus?" somebody suggested at one point. "Sort of like, what qualifies as a nerd, and if there is a nerd culture here at Trinity."

"That's interesting," the EIC mused. "Sounds like an article for the Campus Pulse section."

"Got it," said my section editor, typing the suggestion down in her notes.

I have always had qualities that can be defined as 'nerdy' in some societies: I love to read, I watch anime and read manga and I study a lot. I was called a "nerd" by nearly everyone around me in my school years, and eventually came to adopt the term when describing myself.

Needless to say, when the time came for the Campus Pulse section meeting after the all-staff brainstorm session, I was all "me, me, me!" for the nerd culture article. In my mind, I would be writing about something that was totally my area. This piece would be giving a much-needed spotlight to all nerds on campus!

Little did I know that I was in for an interesting surprise.

The first person I contacted for an interview was Dr. Mark Lewis, a Computer Science Professor who taught a class I had taken during my freshman year at Trinity. I figured that, as a professor in a department with many so-called nerds, Dr. Lewis might be able to give me some insight about Trinity nerd culture.

Dr. Lewis agreed to an interview, and I thus myself sitting in his office at 9:30 a.m. on a Friday, something that had not happened since I was a freshman struggling with Scala programming.

"In some ways this building is a nerd's paradise." Dr. Lewis gestured to the air around him. We were in the Center for Sciences and Innovation (CSI), Trinity's newest building with beautiful, state-of-art learning and research facilities which houses all the Science departments and the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

"You have all these big screen TVs around and quite a few of our students, I’ll see them sitting out here. There’s a particular student—who I won’t name—who I feel like, every time I see him he is plugged into one of those screens and either he’s playing games or he’s watching a cast of games."

I chuckled, knowing exactly who he was talking about.

He went on, "They do the game nights that are not with video games, it's board games. Those are really popular. About once a year, we do Nerd Violence Night, which is the dodgeball game."

Nerd Violence Night is the one night in which Computer Science students get a chance to vent their frustrations to their professors by throwing balls at them. I personally believe that every department should have one of these nights.

Dr. Lewis thought for a moment before continuing with a smile, "I guess other things I hear about are, if a major video game is released, attendance drops for a while. Some students will decide that playing that game is more important than some of their courses for a bit.”

I had to laugh, knowing from my friends in the C.S. department just how true this statement was. I then asked him the obvious question: "So, do you think that there is a nerd culture on campus?"

"Yeah, there is." He replied without hesitation.

"So, what does 'nerd culture' mean for you?

"I think that the campus is very accepting." He said pensively, "The nerd culture, there is a certain eccentric nature to it. People who kind of do things a little bit differently, they’re very into things, but it’s not the standard stuff; a lot of it is science, technology, type of… that’s kind of what I picture as being a nerd culture; and I do believe that Trinity as a campus is accepting of that, and so you have quite a few students who feel comfortable here and are part of whatever counterculture group they have to be part of."

"So, that you know of, what are the subcultures at Trinity?" I ventured.

He chuckled, "I really don't know. I will say that Dr. Myers [the Chair of the C.S. department] tries to oversee some of the anime subculture."

"Oh wow!" I exclaimed, "I didn't know that." This was news to me. I am part of the anime club on campus and had not once heard that Dr. Myers was involved with it.

Dr. Lewis nodded. "Yeah, he's active with the anime club."

"I am part of the anime club," I muttered.

He laughed heartily. "I was watching 'Hunter x Hunter' last night."

"Nice!"

When I asked him what he would like to say to all nerds on campus, and even closet-nerds, Dr. Lewis replied without missing a beat: "Embrace your nerdiness! You're on a college campus. This is supposed to be a place of intellect and learning and being eccentric and whatnot, and you guys should fit right in. In fact, if anything, you should probably be the population that leads the campus in many ways."

I left CSI quite satisfied, shielding my eyes from the rays of the strong, late August sun. Everything Dr. Lewis had said was gold for the purpose of my article. So, yes, there was a nerd culture on campus and the community was very accepting of it. So far, so good.

That afternoon, the Battle Elite: Anime, Pokémon and Videogame Club (yes, that's what our anime club is called) was hosting a Super Smash Bros tournament. Two of the four co-presidents of the club, Charles Stein and Michael Batista, agreed to talk with me for the article.

I have known Charlie, Michael and several other members of Battle Elite for some time. We met roughly a year ago, when I walked into Heidi McFarlin Residence Hall's lounge one afternoon only to find one of the anime shows I was following at the time playing on the large flatscreen above a cluster of couches. Ecstatic, I introduced myself and joined the club. We have been friends ever since.

"What do you define as 'nerd culture?'" I asked them as we settled down on a couch in Heidi lounge, where the Smash Bros tournament was being held.

Michael, a junior, current president and co-founder of the Battle Elite: Anime, Pokémon and Video Game Club, unofficial president of the Magic the Gathering Club, and Captain of the Swashbucklers (Trinity's upper-class substance-free residence hall), was first to reply:

"Nerd Culture, I think, is technically a common ground that helps people know and be able to talk to each other and do things together, that typically people consider on the nerdy side. There’s a lot of things that are very border on the nerdy side, such as things like Super Smash Bros, which is not quite on the nerdy side, but it is right on that edge."

Charlie, co-founder and co-president of Battle Elite followed: "Nerd culture is kind of doing something that you’re passionate about in an obsessive amount, which is not necessarily a bad thing. I guess it can be seen as something that doesn’t contribute to society." He hesitated for a moment, looking for words. "It’s really about a spirit kind of thing. Nerd culture is inspired by passion, that's it! And it’s a little bit silly, but that’s the entire point of it; it’s there to have fun."

I nodded. "Do you all think that there is such a thing as a nerd culture on campus and, if so, where is it concentrated?"

"There's definitely a massive nerd culture on campus. A lot of it is very easily found, a lot of people are very obvious about it. " Michael replied, "Some of the biggest concentrations are actually in Swashbuckler Hall. One of the things it's famous for is being a concentration of some of the nerdiest people that are social and like to interact and do things together."

"So, what would you say are some of the nerdiest, nerd-concentrated activities?" I grinned at the redundancy of my statement.

"Um, Pokémon?" Charlie suggested.

Michael chuckled and said something under his breath, to which Charlie voiced, "What?"

"D&D [Dungeons and Dragons]." The first repeated with a grin.

Charlie nodded. "Oh yeah, D&D is really nerdy." He suddenly frowned. "But it's not. I think that, if people understood what it was about then they wouldn't—"

"Nothing is the nerd culture is particularly nerdy," Michael interjected. "It's more like—"

"It's more society saying that it's nerdy, and people start to avoid it. There's a stigma about it that shouldn't be there," Charlie added.

Michael nodded. "That's why there's a line between what's nerdy and what's not, even though the activities are almost identical. For example, something like playing Pokémon is considered incredibly nerdy but, something like playing FIFA is not considered nerdy, even though it's basically—"

"It's the exact same thing." Charlie shook his head. "People spend, like, hundreds of hours on FIFA and they're like 'No, it's not nerdy, it's a soccer game, it's a sports game, I'm being manly, TESTOSTERONE!' But we're getting the same rush from Pokémon. You've got strategy in FIFA, but you've also got strategy in Pokémon. It's the same thing, except that one is considered less acceptable than the other in some cases."

Michael added, "Most of these games are defined as sort of introverted things, even though one of the things in which we have community interaction is through something that is very nerdy, like Dungeons and Dragons is an incredibly social activity in which you spend a lot of time talking and interacting with people; or Super Smash Bros, we've met probably fifty to a hundred people playing Super Smash Bros in our club, even though that's considered a nerdy, introverted thing."

I turned to Mikaela Hawk, Michael's girlfriend, and also our friend, who had been sitting next to him the whole time. "So, Mikaela, my next question is for you." I grinned at her apprehensive look. "Do you identify as a nerd, what is your connection with Battle Elite, and what do you think about nerd culture in general?"

"I definitely do not identify as a nerd," she replied, "but I am very accepting of nerd culture, I suppose, even though I don't play Super Smash Bros, I don't play D&D, so, I don't really do nerdy activities, but I do hang out with people who do nerdy activities. So, I am on the Battle Elite mailing list, I do come to some of the events just to socialize and see my friends and talk to them without actually participating in whatever the event is for. I think that says a lot about accepting nerdy culture on the Trinity campus. People who don't do those things are friends with people who do and they even show up to the events to support them."

Meanwhile, Sarah Walters had walked into the room. Sarah is a senior and the former captain of the Swashbucklers. I met her roughly around the same time I met Charlie, Michael and Mikaela, and have always admired her ability to have been in control of the rowdy Swashies.

"Sarah!" I exclaimed, proceeding to tell her about my journalistic endeavor as she took a seat on the chair Charlie had been occupying before running off to a meeting with a professor.

"I am actually not involved at all in Battle Elite." Sarah said, "I come here because some of the Swashbucklers are here."

"What does the term 'nerd culture' mean for you?" I asked her.

As she looked meaningfully at the students intently playing Super Smash Bros around us, I laughed, "That?"

"Yeah," she chuckled, "These people." Her expression sobered. "I mean, people are ridiculous about anything. People can be really nerdy about anything. I think people who are obsessed with sports are nerds, bigger nerds than me."

Oh?

My initial conversation with Michael and Charlie had done a 180° turn from "yeah there's a nerd culture on campus" to pointing out and acknowledging that "nerd" and "nerdiness" are mere social constructs. I had long forgotten to think of the matter this way. Of course, in the end the term "nerd" is a qualifier made by a certain branch of society to describe another that did not share its views. Furthermore, here was Sarah, using the term in an entirely different way, to describe what are otherwise known as jocks.

Now what?

It was time to consult the true experts: Communication professors.

Two faculty members came to mind: Dr. Jennifer Henderson and Dr. Aaron Delwiche. Dr. Henderson is the Chair of the Department of Communication and also teaches a class titled Media Fandoms, which I am very happily taking this semester. Dr. Delwiche is currently teaching a class called Comic Books in American Popular Culture. They would surely be able to provide closing insight for the article.

I met with Dr. Henderson the following Monday afternoon. We sat down in her office and I began the routine questioning:

"I guess my first question for you is, what is nerd culture?"

Her brows furrowed slightly. "Well, that is a difficult question. I think that the definition of Nerd Culture changes depending on who you’re asking and where you are. I would say that one of the most important things is that nerd culture has become so much a part of mainstream pop culture today that it doesn’t carry many of the same negative stereotypes that it used to. I think that, sometimes, at Trinity, we even have the reverse going on, where the nerds are dominating and the people who didn’t consider themselves nerds in the past are left out of conversations because smart is kind of ‘in’ now. But, we see it in everything from media choices, you know, the fact that ‘The Big Bang Theory’ is like one of the top-rated shows in all of America, but also in fashion, the idea that we’re all going to wear glasses even if we don’t need glasses anymore, to help us look smarter. So I think nerd culture has definitely become more mainstream in the last five years or so."

I nodded. "You sort of mentioned how the nerds sort of leave out the non-nerds. Could you elaborate on that?"

Dr. Henderson chuckled. "Yeah, and I don't even know if it's that as much. I think Trinity is a small place where people try very hard to get along with one another. So I think that we see fewer of the divisions that we hear about in high school. The fact that you have to be academically talented to come to Trinity levels the playing field. So, I just don’t think that what is traditionally considered a nerd is a negative at Trinity, because we see people having multiple aspects to their personality, and so we don’t put them in those old-fashioned, stereotypical roles anymore"

This was getting interesting. By now, the perspective I had gathered on nerd culture had gone from nerds as being the "other" to nerds as meshed with society; and then there was the fact that even the definition of "nerd" was starting to become ambiguous. Thinking of this, I ventured the question:

"Define nerd."

"I don't think I can."

Well, now I had a problem.

She continued with a chuckle at the look on my face, "Nerds were something very different when I was 20 years old than it is today."

I tried again: "Is there, like, a scholarly definition for nerd?"

Dr. Henderson shook her head with another chuckle. "There isn't. In all the fan studies and fandom literature there aren't definitions of nerd. I would say there aren't any definitions in the academic realm about what constitutes a 'nerd,' or a 'geek,' or any of the terms that we use. There are 'fans' and different kinds of fans instead."

As I left Dr. Henderson's office after the interview, I couldn't put my finger on whether I had gained more clarity or become more confused. I had wanted a more scholarly perspective on nerd culture, and what she had told me was right. There is just so much ambiguity regarding what a nerd is. How can one simply plug a name or stereotype on a person or group of person without even knowing what encompassed the stereotype, or what the word used to name that stereotype even means?!

As I made my way toward Dr. Delwiche's office, I thought about how I had been carelessly throwing around the term "nerd" until now and, for the first time, stopped stone cold to ask myself:

What even is a nerd, exactly?

A question to which the answer had been so clear to me just a week before now completely blew my mind. Dr. Henderson's last words reverberated in my brain as I walked:

"There's all kinds of interesting research about how people who are part of groups see other people. We think about 'in-groups' and 'out-groups,' and who gets to belong. I think that, in nerd culture, it matters from whose perspective you're asking the question as to whether or not it's an in-group or an out-group."

In-groups and out-groups. Boy, did I remember those very well. To this day, I can hear the voices of my childhood schoolmates in my head taunting "nerd! nerd!" whenever I made a good score on a test or answered a question in class. I remembered a close friend who was bullied so badly for being a "nerd" who loved books and classical music that he had to switch schools.

Who gets to belong, huh? I shuddered the memories away as I reached Dr. Delwiche's door. Let's see what he has to say about that.

Admittedly, this was my first time meeting Dr. Delwiche. Walking through the door of his office and introducing myself, I honestly did not know what to expect.

We spent the first 10 minutes of the interview talking about anime, comics and Japanese culture. I was overjoyed.

"So," I said finally, recognizing that I needed to get back on track so I would not take too much time from Dr. Delwiche, "going back, what is nerd culture to you?"

He looked me dead in the eye. "A relic of the twentieth century."

I was stunned. "Oh."

He continued, "What I mean by that is that I think that there was a time, when I was in high school, where things like comic books, computers, video games were considered nerdy. So, when I got into high school I decided, ‘I would really like to go to a dance, have a date, and so I’m not going to be into comics or computers or video games.’ So, publicly, I just denied any connection to those things, which was really stupid because it was stuff I really cared about. We had this whole 'Revenge of the Nerds' dichotomy where you got the nerds and the football players, and these categories that are all rigid and I think that’s changed a lot. […] I think we’ve hit a turning point where you don’t just belong to one narrow group. Anybody can read a comic book, anybody can play a video game. It doesn’t boil down to a certain identity of, like, ‘the nerd.’ So, for me, I have much respect for what the concept of nerd culture did for us and the way people kind of took that term and made it their own; but I think we are growing beyond it, so that it’s just culture, it's just part of what we’re into. […] I think that these things are breaking out of those shackles of ‘nerd,’ and they’re just things for everybody. So, that's my view of nerd culture. It's not so much an 'anti-nerd' thing as much as thinking that that label just doesn’t really do anything for us anymore. […] I think the terms have a very problematic history, whether they are used to beat up on nerds or to liberate nerds. I think that I will be glad when we get rid of them. They serve their purpose, but I will be happy when we move on and just say it’s just culture, it’s just what people are into."

When I sat down to put together that Trinitonian article, I stayed true to my initial purpose and made it about whether or not there was a nerd culture at Trinity University and if people were accepting of nerds on campus. In reality, however, the matter had become to me so much more than just that.

I realized I was writing about something that did not even exist.

On September 14, the day the article was published, I excitedly opened the newspaper to see how it had turned out. To my utter dismay, the piece had been renamed from "Nerd Culture on Campus: True or False?" to "Trinity home to clubs where nerds are preferred," thus defeating the entire purpose of the work.

That was probably the fastest migraine I ever got.

You might be wondering why I just spent over 3,500 words detailing my experience writing about something that is not real. That's a half hour of your life you spent reading this that you'll never get back, no?

No.

Here's the thing: There is no such thing as a "nerd" or a "geek" or a "jock." We are a society that simply loves putting labels on things, and we have got to stop. What I learned from this experience is that there is no such thing as a solidly defined societal label. Everything is relative.

Nobody is a "nerd," "jock" or "geek"; they simply have their own set of likes, dislikes and hobbies. Like Dr. Delwiche said, it's just culture, it's just society. People like different things and that's totally fine. I took the time to write out this experience so that anybody who reads it can learn what I learned in forty minutes rather than two weeks, or worse, an entire lifetime.

Or, even worse, never.

Keep constraining yourself to labels and stereotypes of what you want to be and what you don't want to be, and you'll never be truly satisfied in life. Once, just once, sit down and ask yourself, "What do I want to do? What do I like? What do I dislike?" Quit thinking in terms of definitions and start seeing things for what they are. If we could all do that, I believe we would all be happier and get along better.

Nonetheless, given the wonderful title somebody decided to give that article, I believe we have a long way to go before we get to that point.

**All quotes have been included with permission from respective parties.

**Original Trinitonian article can be found here.