Memorial Day is the unofficial start to the summer. In honor of this unofficial beginning, I’m republishing a post about some of my nerdiest summers ever.
Memorial Day is in our rearview mirror, which means we have finally made it to the summer. Summer is a magical time in which we remember long days spent swimming, playing with friends and enjoying a vacation from school. Unfortunately, as we get older, summer just becomes the months when our commutes to work are hotter and we have to cover for more people as they take vacations.
As a youth pastor I still get some of the childlike feelings of summer. With our students out of school our ministry becomes more event-oriented with summer camps, pool parties and trips to amusement parks. I still have to work during the summer but most days I prefer riding roller coasters and watching baseball games to sitting under fluorescent lights in my office.
Even though I like my summers now, I still get nostalgic for some of my favorite, nerdiest summers. Check mine out below and hopefully they’ll jog your memory for some of your nerdiest summer experiences.
The Summer of 1999
1999 was a great summer. Not only was I graduating from high school and beginning my work in youth ministry, but also we were all taken back to a galaxy far, far away. I didn’t hate The Phantom Menace when it first came out and I still don’t hate it. It’s probably my least favorite of the series but the podracing scene and The Duel of the Fates still get me going. I think I saw Episode 1 in the theater seven times. Much to the dismay of my mother I wasn’t working that summer. My unemployment afforded me plenty of time to see Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan battle the Trade Federation and Darth Maul.
The Summer of 2002
2002 was another great nerdy summer. After being let go from my job as an intern at my church the previous autumn (I didn’t want to do PowerPoint anymore and they didn’t want to pay me to do anything else), I found a job working at EB Games. The only video game console I had ever owned was a Sega Genesis and after my time with Sonic the Hedgehog I hadn’t really picked up a controller. That all changed, though, when I got hired at EB Games. My work revolved around video games and my paychecks began funding my newfound obsession. By the end of 2002 I owned a Playstation 2, an Xbox and a Gamecube. I didn’t really like working retail that much, but I never minded going to the store and talking about video games with my coworkers and our customers.
The Summer of 2010
2010 is probably the best summer of my life. Iron Man 2 came out that summer but Iron Man and War Machine weren’t what made that summer so great. In the summer of 2010 I married Alycia, the woman who loves me for the nerd that I am and is a pretty big nerd in her own right. As a young nerd trying to muster the courage to talk to a girl much less ask one out, I never thought I’d have what Han and Leia had. However, when God brought Alycia into my life I knew I had something even better. Alycia puts up with my nerdiest nerdclinations, like Star Trek: The Next Generation and Battlestar Galactica, and has even embraced some of the more palatable ones, like the Marvel movies and The Elder Scrolls games. She is the best thing that has ever happened to me and the summer of 2010 will be hard to top – unless we have a child when The Avengers 3 or Episode 8 comes out.
If Bryan Adams has taught us anything, it’s that people enjoy being nostalgic for summers past. The summer is a great time to let our inner nerd shine as we line up for nerdy fare at the theaters and spend long nights settling Catan or leveling up. And even if we find ourselves stuck in an office with a broken air conditioner, we can still reminisce about the fun we had and try to find some of that magic again with our families and friends.
What were some of your favorite, nerdiest summers?
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