The Nuclear War Between Jocks and Nerds

Please welcome my latest guest blogger, H. G. Sansostri.

H.G. - Harri - is an author with two published books to his name already. I say "already," because Harri is only 14 years old, but writes with the maturity of someone double his age. 

I gave his novel, The Chronicles Of Derek Dunstable, 4-stars in my Amazon review. As I am thoroughly recommending it to everyone, I'm not giving away the plot at all. All I’ll say about the storyline is that it involves a thoroughly modern and unique take on zombies – well, I’ve not come across this type of zombie/monster/creature before, anyway. It’s a truly innovative idea.

It's also written in the present tense, which is extremely difficult to achieve, but makes a book much fresher and vibrant when successfully accomplished. And HG pulls it off effortlessly. 

Check out his Amazon page here: 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/H.G-Sansostri/e/B00IVGC18E/

Harri's blog post has nothing to do with his life as a writer...but is something he feels very strongly about - the nuclear war between jocks and nerds. Harri, over to you.

I am not one for Sports. I’m not good at shooting or defending in football, bowling in cricket, dribbling in basketball or doing any complicated tricks.

I am pretty good at dodgeball and handball, where the fear of taking a powerful shot in football to the face is lessened. I am really good at goal keeping in handball and keeping myself in the game in dodgeball. However…

When I watched ‘Good Morning Britain’ a few days ago, they were having a discussion about competitive parents during Sports Day. They had a woman who came on and said  ‘How kids must learn to push themselves to become the best they can be and also be competitive with one another’.

​Now here, I totally agree with her. Sports do make us want to do our best and come first. We can’t lie and say winning doesn’t feel amazing, it does. I mean, we try not to feel bad when we lose, but we feel a little bad, don’t we? that’s just simple, plain, human behaviour!

She also mentioned that  children can show their parents their skills and achievements through sports and be proud. Now that made me slightly frustrated, not because of her comment, but because of what primary schools are doing.

Kids who are good at sports get a whole day to show off their talents, yes Sports Day,  yet some kids who are good at Science ,Maths or English only get recognition of this  through a five minute parent/teacher consultation and an End of Year report with just a paragraph on what they have obtained academically throughout the year.

There is no recognition from your classmates  especially if you are an academic and enjoy certain subjects, whilst the kids who excel in sport have lots of respect from their peers in their class? I respect and admire the ‘sporty kids’ but I also respect the ‘clever kids’ too?

​We are just not on a ‘level playing field’ excuse the pun!

We get loads of rubbish from others in our year as well. This has happened a lot to me being a ‘nerd’ or a ‘keeno’ (people who are really enthusiastic about school or ‘keen’ as they call it in my form). Just because we are smart and aren’t as good as them in sports instantly makes us a target.  Its either that we stick up for ourselves or they pick on us for being weaker than them, well that’s what they like to think?  

I don’t get as much hassle as other ‘nerds’ do, but it still feels awkward or hurtful when one of those popular boys just ‘disses’ you and everyone joins in and goes crazy.

Here is an analogy…

It’s like those Japanese cartoons Pokemon. All the popular ones are the main characters, with lots of detailed animation and personality. Yet, we, ‘the nerds’ are the background characters, the ones whom only have an outline, a face and body, with no particular details at all?

My point is, if you really want to help cut down on bullying, start with levelling the playing field between the ‘nerds’ and ‘jocks’.

Maybe then we can start feeling more confident with being good at what we are all good at and know we will get rewarded equally and fairly. Is that ever going to happen?  I don’t think so!

It shouldn’t be all about sports achievements  or all about academics but there should be a mutual respect and balance for both fields.