The Rise of the Robots and the Cool Kids
The gym is filled with throbbing music and cheering, dancing people wearing costumes and waving streamers. The rise and fall of the chants and fight songs is reminiscent of a football game against archrivals.
This event, however, is louder, brighter, sparkly-er somehow, and pulsing with actual brilliance. This is the State Robotics Championships – and the competition is fierce.
Brains and Capes: A New Kind of Cool
Teammates wear matching T-shirts, beads, buttons, funny hats, hair dye, face paint, and crowns; some even wear capes. The more outrageous the outfit, the more confident the wearer.
I think of David and Tim – the two smartest and most dorky of the Dorks in my high school. I was lucky to mingle with all the facets of my class, and when I hung out with David and Tim, I learned stuff. Stuff like how to play Dungeons & Dragons, how to write basic code to make my name blink on a computer screen, and that “intellectual humor” was only funny when you did your homework and actually knew what the joke was about.
An “Oh, I get it” pathetic half-laugh, and they know you don’t. David and Tim don’t “do” sympathy – they level a hard, sardonic stare.
The Nerds Who Ruled the Future
Today, there’s no doubt David and Tim are two of our class’s most successful and wealthiest members and may have even invented something I use daily. But back then, they had a social circle of two, very short pants, and no dates to Prom.
The exuberance of the Robotics Competition fills me with such joy for the uber-smart kids of this generation. Not only are these kids celebrated and rewarded publicly for their brains, but these competitors in the T-shirts, funny hats, and flowing capes are soooo cooool! They are connected completely – what I call a Zing Ring; they identify with one another, and they share a common and concrete belief in all things cerebrum.
Forget Prom – Find Your People
If you told any one of these kids, they could trade this Robotics Event for two free tickets to Prom, complete with a polyester tux and baller limo? They would tell you, “Osculate my Gluteus Maximus.” (Google it.)
Today, we can control our connection. We can find the people with whom we connect and actually connect with them!
Are You in the Right Zing Ring?
Consider those you interact with every day. Are you surrounding yourself with people who “get” you? Are you constantly being elevated as well as challenged by your current circle?
First, figure out what you like to do: grow veggies, turn dryer lint into quilts, rescue furless felines, lay under the flight path of landing jets – whatever it is, there are other dorks out there who enjoy the same thing.
For me, the National Speakers Association is my Den of Dorks, and it’s filled with some of the most creative, brilliant, and generous humans on the planet!
The Strength of a Zing Ring
There is such strength in surrounding yourself with people from your Zing Ring. And that power will allow you to spread your own Dork wings and fly.
If you don’t feel connected, it might be time to look for a new Zing Ring, screw the Prom, and get yourself a good Cape!
Love and light,
Tami
