“Embrace your inner child” used to be the mantra of the overworked and overstressed adults everywhere. Everyone is carrying around a much younger version of themselves on the inside, its practitioners say, as they hold forth on the importance of play for a well-rounded spiritual life.
But people are so much more than their inner children. We’re all complex, multifaceted, and polymorphous. That’s why every year, July 13th has been designated “Embrace Your Inner Geek Day.” As yet, the inner geeks of the world have not had a chance to flourish and shine, and Embrace Your Inner Geek Day aims to change all that. It comes on the heels of San Diego’s famous Comicon, and there’s really no better time.
How does one embrace one’s inner geek, though?
It’s simple. Find your secret interest, the one that you know an improbable amount about, but you never really get a chance to discuss in public. You might even be slightly embarrassed about this interest – maybe you collect My Little Ponies on the sly, or memorize softball batting scores, or are amazing at beer pong.
Now embrace it. Flaunt it. Show the world what you’ve got. Once you’ve owned your inner geek, let it out to play. You won’t just be doing yourself a favor, you’ll be helping everyone else too, by contributing to the wondrous continuum of human interests and talents.
In case you’re doubtful, consider this: “Embrace Your Inner Geek Day” was created by a Pennsylvania couple – actor and producer Thomas Roy and his wife Ruth, who discovered early on that they had a rare talent for creating fake, tongue-in-cheek holidays. Essentially, they were fake holiday geeks. So the two proceeded to create dozens of them, including “Don’t Step on a Bee Day” (July 10th), “Be a Dork Day” (July 15th), and “Hot Enough For Ya Day.”
The two have found unprecedented success over the years creating and copyrighting these holidays, all because they decided to put a strange, probably slightly embarrassing, and yes, geeky talent to use.
