You hate Mondays, don’t you?
Admit it — it’s true. You hate Mondays: getting up early, returning to school, facing the daily grind of homework and classes again after a blissfully relaxing weekend … we all know the feeling. Well, everyone except for me, that is.
I love Mondays. Monday is practically my favorite day of the week. And no, it’s not because I love getting up before 8 a.m. to walk to school, nor is it because my life just feels totally incomplete without homework. It’s because — as nerdy as it sounds — Mondays are the days my friends and I get together to play “Dungeons & Dragons.”
Now, even I know that “Dungeons & Dragons” is perhaps the pinnacle of nerd-dom. For those of you who don’t know, “Dungeons & Dragons,” or “D&D” for short, is a role-playing tabletop game typically set in a fantastical medieval universe. Really, all the components are there for attaining primary status in the nerd hierarchy — it’s got magic, it’s got violence, it’s got adventure, and it’s got everything else you could possibly think of when it comes to “nerdy game attributes.”
You could definitely call me the nerdiest nerd you’ve ever met after hearing that this fantasy game is what causes me to get so hyped about Mondays. But I’m here to tell you that being a nerd can have its benefits — and for me, “D&D” is one of them.
Before I started playing “D&D” with my friends, I hated Mondays just like the rest of you. But now, I’m able to pull myself out of bed with a smile after the weekend, knowing I’ll be spending hours in the afternoon creating mystical worlds and advancing exciting storylines.
My friends all seem to feel the same way about it — they’re always expressing their anticipation at the next time we’ll meet to play again. It’s a social bonding experience for all of us, which is important because most of us are shy, nerdy introverts when we’re alone. But together, we become confident, nerdy introverts.
One of the best parts about this whole ordeal is the fact that it helps me grow closer to the people I play “D&D” with — both my new friends and my old ones. You’d be surprised how much you can get to know someone by interacting with their fictional persona, and it’s much easier to talk to people when your latest “D&D” session is an obvious and always applicable segue into conversation about the game or anything else. “D&D” gives all of us an opportunity to communicate with each other without too much social pressure surrounding the situation.
We all know that we’re total geeks, but playing “D&D” makes us happier than it makes us self-conscious at our nerdy behavior. For me, at least, the world we play in “D&D” is the only one in which I can do grand things like go on adventures, fight for a good cause and achieve honor for myself and my teammates. Anything’s possible, because we, the players, make up the story as we go. There are no limits, and in a fantasy world, we can truly do whatever we want, however we want to.
“D&D” is just one example of why I embrace being a nerd instead of trying to hide it. I face my true self — the self that spends six hours straight playing video games on Saturdays and finds genuine joy in successfully casting a spell in a fictional universe. It’s who I am, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
