“"Mom, Arnie Welsh keeps calling me a geek. He says it like it's a bad thing. Is being a geek a bad thing?"

"Of course not, Soda Pop. And don't listen to labels. They don't matter."

"What are labels?"

"It's an imaginery sticker people slap on you with the word they think you are written on it. It doesn't matter who they think you are. It matters who you think you are."

"I think I might be a geek."

She laughed. "Then you be a geek. Just be whatever makes you happy, Soda Pop, and I'll be happy too.”