Sitting down, wracking my brain to find something to write about for the current week’s Odyssey article has become a consistent pastime of mine. One would think that it wouldn’t be hard. After all, there’s no shortage of good (and all too frequently bad) things happening in the world or in my life to offer commentary on.

But this week, I was really stumped. I couldn’t think of a halfway decent idea…until Thursday night that is.

On Thursday, June 1, 2017 my friends and I gathered around the dining room table in my house, pencils at hand and pizza at the ready. What wild and crazy shenanigans were we up to? Nothing terrible, I promise you. We were settling in to kick off a new campaign for Dungeons and Dragons.

Yes folks, I’m gonna write a little bit about Dungeons and Dragons.

Let me preface myself. I have long been unabashed about my keen interest in the sort of nerdy and geeky things that others might find too distasteful or too outlandish to find any real appeal in. Magic, dragons, and space-faring, Earth-invading aliens had always sort of been my forte growing up and, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think too much of that has changed.

The state of being a geek (or a nerd; I’ve gotten both) is a more complex one than I think most people readily realize or acknowledge. Too often geeks are characterized as being that “weird kid in the corner”, most often because his interests don’t align with that of the general population. Because he’s a little too invested in the thing that most interests him.

Yet tell me, is the same thing said about the scoreboard-obsessed jock or the selfie-obsessed popular girl? Not usually, despite those kinds of people being just as overinvested in what they’re most interested in.

This is one of the thoughts that came to me as a I sat down to roll dice and cast spells Thursday night. There was a time (long gone now) where it wasn’t on the up and up to have such an interest in Pokémon or Yu-gi-oh, and so my friends and I were ostracized (sometimes purposely, sometimes incidentally) by some of our peers. Even now, there might be those out there who think that sitting down to play a game that relies so heavily on imagination classifies us as something “lesser than”.

In consolation, I’ve found this Simon Pegg quote that lent me a lot of insight: “Being a geek is all about being honest about what you enjoy and not being afraid to demonstrate that affection. It means never having to play it cool about how much you like something. It’s basically a license to proudly emote on a somewhat childish level rather than behave like a supposed adult. Being a geek is extremely liberating”.

Being “geeky” or “nerdy” is in no way a bad thing, rather very much about honesty and being honest with those around you about your likes and dislikes. Oftentimes, those likes also happen to involve spaceships or wizards.

The other thing that struck me on Thursday was how liberating it was to be able to take a break. To slip into a world apart from our own for an extended period of time and let all the worries of the world, both immediate and far-off, fade away.

Dungeons and Dragons allows my friends and I a chance to relax and focus our tension into something apart from our own immediate troubles. By being able to forget about that bad day at work or poor grade on a test, we’re able to approach the issue from a different angle and with a mind more rested and at ease than before.

The funny thing is plenty of other people do this too (though D&D might not be their drug of choice). Some people exercise, some people pray, but virtually all people search out this meditative and self-separating sort of state in order to rest, clear, and recharge their minds and approach the issue (or issues) at hand with a completely different outlook.

So what am I driving at here? I suppose the best way to put it, is that a game like Dungeons and Dragons is far from superfluous. Sure, I might never actually creep through a dungeon or slay a fire-breathing monstrosity, but imagining myself as a character in that world is not only something I enjoy doing, but that helps put me in a better, more at-ease mindset.

That being said, next time I sit down to write an Odyssey article, maybe I should make sure to play a round or two of Dungeons and Dragons first. Maybe then wracking my brain for an idea would be that much less of a consistent pastime.