The Kid With the Steampunk Welder's Goggles

To all my loyal readers, all half-dozen of them: you're rolling your eyes, I know. Steampunk has become a cliche. You've been all over this stuff for years, what with your manual typewriter computer keyboards, your penny-farthing motorcycles, your round-trip tickets to Europe via airship, and your autographed copies of The Difference Engine. 

As for me, I had no idea welder's goggles were such an integral part of the whole steampunk getup until one of my students came into the library wearing them. 

I asked to try them, and immediately, I wanted a pair. 

I now have a pair. They make me happy. 

When I ordered the goggles on Amazon, by the way, every comment said "Great Steampunk Goggles!" 

I felt behind the curve.

My affinity for welder's goggles, by the way, had nothing to do with the steampunk thing. I like them because I liked Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Also, the goggles make me look like one of the scientists from La Jetee, or as if I belong on the cover of Thomas Dolby's The Golden Age of Wireless. 

Now, about the kid:

There's something life affirming about a middle school student who wears a Victorian vest, a pair of welder's goggles, and proudly carries around "The Steampunk Bible." It would be one thing if this were a middle school trend, but no; this kid is alone. 

Most of us would never have been able to pull something off like this back in the crushingly conformist environment of middle school. This kid, however, does it effortlessly. 

One of the best parts of my job is seeing a student who has the courage to be different, to completely be their own person. I meet a number of these students, as they often seek refuge in the library either after school or during lunch recess. They are not out of sync with the world; the world is out of sync with them. 

It gets better. 

As this kid showed me his welder's goggles, he talked about how he took a pair of 3-D glasses, and, with a Dremmel, fashioned a pair of 3-D lenses that fit inside his welder's goggles. 

So he wears welder's goggles to 3-D movies. 

This kid deserves a medal. 

I know that among the geekeratti, steampunk is mainstream, past its selling date. But it's still barely on the radar here at middle school. And this kid is there, with his welder's goggles, thinking of plans, no doubt, to create a clockwork interface for an Ipad, and to use, in the place of a cel phone, a flock of passenger pigeons. 

Priceless.