Where the Nerds go

Today I attended the OSU chess club for the first time. It was such a thrill playing real opponents with the breath of life in them. Such ecstasy. Such joy. I can't even begin to describe the feeling as I began that first game.

I was annihilated.

Chalk it up to nervousness or that prior feeling of bliss; one or the other rendered my mental processes useless. Whatever the case, I quickly realized that this club wasn't going to give the new guy off the street an easy time. I rebounded in games two and three, drew the fourth, and lost the fifth (the euphoria was starting to creep back in).

But oh, the pain was worth the cost. There's nothing like touching physical chess pieces, nothing like seeing (or feeling) the agony of defeat or thrill of victory first-hand. It's a chess thing. All I can say is that I left that place happy.

And it wasn't just the chess. The people there were weird, but weird in a strangely familiar way. The social ineptness, the sarcastic remarks, the "nerdness" in the air, it just felt right.

Of course, this is probably because I'm just a weird guy myself. Maybe some soul searching is in order.