Its Not Easy Being Geek – What the 787 Dreamliner Inaugural Meant to Me

It’s not easy being a geek.

I learned that at a very young age, when my preschool class at the museum was two girls and twelve boys… it might have been all the time learning the names of various dinosaurs and reptiles that fascinated me so.

I further fleshed it out when most of my elementary school Girl Scout friends were more interested in Barbie clothes than Star Wars.

In junior high, I was more comfortable in the computer lab, talking about programming languages with the boys, than in the lunchroom, talking about boys with the girls.

In high school, I gravitated towards the Whiz Quiz team and other cerebral activities, not so much because I was good at them, but because I was comfortable there.

And by college, while I’d learned how to balance my geek pursuits with a first-impression view of what outsiders consider “normal”, I was always happiest around the people who let me be just a tiny bit weird.

Yes, I’m a geek.  And in adulthood, I found my people among other aviation enthusiasts.  AvGeeks, as they call themselves.

#AvGeek – that’s me.

There are many variants of AvGeeks.  Some are pilots.  Others are obsessed with the technical specifications of the planes.  A few like to meticulously record the statistical details of every flight they take (tail number, pushback time, takeoff time, cruising altitude, etc.)  More than a few take photos of every detail.  And some, like me, just like the feeling of being up in the air.

But I also love the friendships.  Ask any young adult, and they’ll tell you that one of the biggest realities post-college is how much more difficult it is to make friends in those years that follow.  You have to find your people – and mine are the ones who share my sense of wanderlust and the feeling that stepping onto the jetbridge is like walking through the portal of a magical adventure every time.  (That love for it is probably also how I’ve stayed sane through 16 years of heavy business travel!)

So Thursday’s inaugural flight undoubtedly meant something different for me than it did for other AvGeeks.  For many of them, it was the chance to be “first”.  I missed that… I was in New York on Wednesday so that I couldn’t get home for that true first flight.  But I snapped up the chance to be on the inaugural ORD-DFW flight (the first ORD-DFW flight) because I wanted to be with my people.

No – I wanted to be with my friends.

Yes, my friends

The people who do these things – take inaugural flights, participate in drawn-out internet discussions about wing flaps and seat configurations, who fly across the country to have the chance to climb around a brand-new airplane – those people GET me.  Without pretense, without judgment – they UNDERSTAND.  And it’s why I’m more likely to forge new relationships with people who don’t think my love of this is weird.  I’m going to prioritize my time for those who accept my geekiness (even if it’s not their cup of tea) and let me be me.

And so (by way of explanation), that’s why I was too busy standing at the gate in Chicago, hugging people coming off the first flight on Thursday morning, to have taken many photos.

It’s why I juggled my workday (starting at 4 a.m. and finishing at midnight) so I could carve out a couple of hours to socialize in the Admirals Club and spend part of the return flight hanging out in the business-class aisle, gabbing with friends.

And it’s why, while plenty of other bloggers have brought you these extremely detailed reports on the inaugural flights with tons of photos, you’ll have to settle for my preview from last Wednesday night in a hangar at DFW, because I was too busy being an “enthusiast” to be a “blogger”.  I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

In conclusion…

It’s not easy being a geek.  But it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

(If you read all this and are thinking “damn Jen, I really want a review of the plane”, check out my dear friend Andy’s review of the plane, complete with his amazing photos!  I’ll share a few more 787 thoughts in the coming days, but that should hold you over!)