The Charge Of The Elder Geek

I call myself an Elder Geek.  You know my kind, the seasoned old professional nerd with a few decades under his belt who never left being a complete geek as he worked his way up the career ladder.  In fact you may be like me, or you will  be in the years to come . . . or decades.

(If it is decades, well, thanks, now I feel old)

There’s something very important to me as a “seasoned nerd” that I want to share with you.  It’s the joy and duty of “passing the torch.”

I owe a lot in my life to the geek/nerd/fan scene – practically all of it.  It’s how I met my friends, it’s how I found my career, it’s how I got exposed to so much in the world.  To this day it’s how I meet new people and get inspired to try new things (which helps now that us nerds, geeks, and others are chic).

Because it’s done so much for me, because I meet so many wonderful people, because it opens up so many opportunities, I make sure I pass it on.

I work to help cons run.  Cons are such a major part of life for our scene, I want to help people join them, run the, take them over, pass them on, and create new events. (Heck, I did a book on it.)

I work to help other communities run.  Web and writing and all the others out there.  These communities are how we grow, connect, use our talents, and create long-term projects.

I work to help people career-wise.  The entire nerd/geek/otaku scene is filled with talented, creative people.  The scene gave me my career ambitions (thanks to video games and computers), so I pass on the inspiration and opportunities.

I work to hook geeks and nerds and fans up with each other so they can meet, connect, and bond.  I met so many friends back in the early ‘zine and pub days, and I know the power of good networking.

You can do this too.  You can do it now if you’re an Elder Geek.  If you’re on the way to becoming one (and oh, you will be), you can start helping now.

We’re lucky to have this massive interlinked world of crazy-creative cultures.  We’ve got a legacy of cons and newsletters and fanfic and everything else.  We have decades of history and power and talent.

So start passing it on, start mentoring, start reaching out to the younger geeks, the new nerds, and help them hook up with our world.  Someone did it for you, someone did it for me, so let’s go and do it and bring aboard!

When we do this, we preserve our legacies.  When we do this we reach out and help others.  When we do this, the depth and meaning of what we love and do  is strengthened.  When we do this we get outside of ourselves and into something larger.

So go on.  What’s your legacy?  What are you passing on?  You’re gonna be an old nerd like me, so get on with it!

– Steven Savage