My husband and I met in college. At first, I thought he was this handsome, athletic, sweet fraternity guy. We went on a few dates before I made it over to his apartment and saw a Star Wars blanket on his bed. When I mentioned it, his eyes lit up.

“Do you like Star Wars?” he asked.

“I’ve never seen the movies,” I replied.

I’m not sure what our date plans were originally supposed to be that evening, but instead we marathoned through all three of the original movies. He was so excited to show them to me. It was that night that I met my guy’s geeky side. I thought it was cute.

A few months later, he bought me a shirt that said “I <3 My Geek.” I thought it was adorable, and I wore it all the time. Looking back on it now, I can say that I really didn’t appreciate the importance of the word “geek” then: I knew he was into science fiction and had an old collection of comic books, but I don’t think I fully comprehended how many things he was passionate about and how deeply he loved them. I am certain I had no idea how much it would impact our lives as a couple and as parents, and how it would take me many years to fully appreciate and respect the term.

I give you the top ten perks of being married to a geek.

1. He’s passionate about technology. He researches any potential purchase ad nauseam: we have a Roomba, a Nest for our air conditioning, an internet connected sprinkler system, the Amazon Echo, and countless other gadgets. I feel like I’m living in the future in “Back to the Future II.” If I want to adjust the temperature in the house I can do it from my phone. If I need to know the weather or traffic I ask Alexa (Amazon’s version of Siri). In our house, the future is now.
2. Having a live-in Entertainment Director. Without my husband, I can honestly say I never would have watched “Doctor Who,” “Sherlock,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Firefly,” “The Walking Dead,” or “Jessica Jones.” I call my husband the Entertainment Director of our home. He knows exactly where I fall on the geeky spectrum, which TV shows and movies to keep for himself and which ones to share with me. I’m frakking grateful for that.
3. Going to Comic-Con. Once our kids were old enough to be left with grandparents for an extended period of time we finally went on a romantic vacation… to San Diego Comic Con. The looks of puzzlement when I explained to friends and acquaintances that we were going to a comic book convention were priceless. We had so much fun that we went back again the following year. We can’t wait to take our kids. We had THE BEST TIME!
4. Raising our little geeks. I love that my kids are geeks too. We love bonding with them on opening night of Star Wars, taking them to Mega Con, and letting them stay up late to watch “Mythbusters” (we even took the boys to see hosts Adam and Jamie live on stage). I turned my crafting into a little business and named it “Pint Sized Geeks” after them.
5. Understanding the secret society of geeky t-shirts. It probably took me ten years of marriage to fully understand my husband’s pride in his t-shirts: they can’t just say the name of the video game or movie that he likes. He wants an obscure reference from the movie. The shirts (all 50+ of them) amuse him and it’s a great social filter to find like-minded people. When someone compliments him on his shirt, we know we’ve just met a fellow geek.
6. Saving money. We cut cable over a year ago. My husband streams everything. I honestly don’t know how he does it, and I really don’t care. When I want to watch a show, it’s there for me. (He is the Entertainment Director, after all…)
7. Getting an awesome job with great benefits. My husband hit the motherlode of cool jobs: he makes video games for EA. Let me say this again. He gets paid to make video games. He’s been there for nine years. The like-minded people he works with are the icing on the cake. He has a lunchtime Dungeons and Dragons game. His studio rents out theaters when Marvel movies come out. He is with his people AND he gets free video games!
8. Having live-in tech support. He’s not just my techie, he’s the techie for everyone in our family and most of my friends. He’s a good sport about it (most of the time) and has logged onto many of our friends’ computers to help at all hours of the night.
9. Having cool things in my house. When our friends come over the focus of their attention is usually the many LEGO creations that are all over our home, including a working original Nintendo out of LEGOs – that is the most popular item in my living room. Our lamps, napkin holders, and bathroom fixtures are made from LEGO. He also recently bought a 3-D printer. I’ve never seen grown men get so excited over a toothpaste squeezer. Everyone is fascinated with the printer and he loves to show it off.
10. He encourages my passions. Even though he might not be into my music, Broadway shows, or my volunteer efforts, he supports them fully. He understands what it means to be passionate about something and knows what joy I get from my activities. When I decided to start my little business, he created a website and had it up and running in a matter of hours.

I sincerely hope that my boys turn out to be as wonderfully geeky and supportive of their wives. I hope he appreciates how far I’ve come to love his wonderful world of geekdom even if I don’t love everything he’s shown me (Game of Thrones and Dragonball Z). I’ve also been looking to add one more t-shirt to his collection. This one is going to say “I <3 My Geek.” He can wear it as proudly as I did when he bought that shirt for me. After all these years, and thanks to him, I’ve earned the title.

Samantha Taylor is a wife and mother of three. She works as a magazine editor. She also writes for Kveller.com. 

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