GeekMom Secret Origins: Jenn Hansen

Beneath the tree called Grandfather, standing tall in a small copse of trees amid the sweet grass of the eastern plains of Colorado, I listened to leafy tales. Hiding in a lilac hedge along the fence-line in my backyard, I made my home with faeries and many insects, closely observing the natural world. More often than not, I could be found lounging in the branches of a tree with either a book or a pencil and notebook, vehicles for my imagination. Climbing a hill, I once saw the moon, full and sitting low on the horizon. It was orange and I could see nothing else. I hunt for that moon in every evening sky, amid the constellations and their epics.

I cannot remember feeling like I fit in with other kids my age, but it wasn’t until junior high school that I was labeled a geek (nerd, dork, etc.).  However uncomfortable the term was in those adolescent days, I eventually embraced the term. Star Wars, Star Trek, Tolkien, griffins and unicorns, faeries and elves, aliens, talking animals, Lego, He-Man and She-ra; I’m a geek and I’m proud!

I’m not particularly gadgety; I leave the high-tech to my husband. (I can, however, rock NES Tetris and SNES Killer Instinct.) I am decidedly low-tech. I geek-out over old school crafts like ink- and paper-making, foraging for food in the backyard, calligraphy, hand-crafted books, instruments, cooking and spinning. Classical music (especially early music and opera), medieval literature (Caedmon to Chaucer, and Shakespeare too), history, astronomy, nature and Celtic and Norse culture–I love it!

I’m a newborn mom, determined to raise my son to walk in the world without the fear of labels, with pride for whatever he chooses to geek-out about.