When Did You Know You Were a Geek?

this is a reply i made to geekgirldiva's post.

i knew i liked playing video games, i knew that i tended to like "boy movies" instead of "girl movies", but i always thought that i would grow out of it. That i would one day choose shoes over games (i do like shoes, but i LOVE games) and that i would "grow up". I realized that this wouldn't happen when i was totally unhappy at my "grown-up job" (desk monkey at IBM) and that if i wanted to be happy in life, i needed to do something that i loved, and that thing was making video games.
I had gamed a lot as a kid, then i had sort of tried to get away from it, because i didnt know any people that shared my interest (pre-broadband internet) and it was lonely having an interest that i couldnt share -- when games had "2 player" on the box i knew i would only get to play 1.
But i had always kept up with industry news, i had continued to play various games, and then i knew -- that is what i would do.
And so i did. Now i make games.
Games lead me to comics, lead me to heroclix, and off the deep end into geekdom - but not being along in my interests anymore made a huge difference.