Why You Should Be Glad All Your Friends Are Nerds

We all have that one friend (or many). You know the one.

The second something from their mysterious world (the one of unfathomable understanding to the average man) happens, they get freaking excited. In their flurry of enthusiasm, you feel overwhelmed and wonder what it is they are going on about. This can be applied to: Computer Science, Physics, Star Wars, Walking Dead, etc.

In this day and age, there are more types of nerds, and the word has even evolved from a noun into an adjective as well. New-age nerds are now more than a punching bag for teasing, personal and portable instant search engine, trivia masters, or inventors of our future society. They are our friends! Each of us has a little “nerd” within. Personally, my nerd specialty is Doctor Who, time travel paradox and anachronisms. Other nerds may be more like Neil deGrasse Tyson and use their intellectual powers to change the world. Either way, we all know one (or are one) and here are a few ways you should appreciate the nerds in your life.

• Nerds have a passion and passion equals results. Would Bill Nye cared more about anything else in his life, would we have as many science enthusiasts and free thinkers as we do now? Without Bill’s never ending determination to educate, the world would be one step closer to doom, I assume. Also, science rules.
• Nerds never give up. If George R. R. Martin gave up on reading and writing (a notorious nerd attribute) and focused on being “popular” would we have anything as epic as Game of Thrones at our disposal? Storytelling and the ability to spark imagination is a beautiful art form and without it streaming video would be pretty boring.
• Nerds change the world. Every time I get a vaccine for an otherwise deadly disease, I make sure to be thankful for whomever decided to stay in and study instead of doing beer stands. Every time I do my job and get paid so I can have a happy life, I take a moment to reflect on how everything would be different if computers didn’t exist. We have to appreciate that these inventors, artists, composers, people and such are what makes the world the one we get to live in everyday.
• Nerds are true to themselves. While everyone else was snickering in the back of class during the teachers lecture of being yourself and achieving your dreams, the nerds were planning their future (world domination, mechanical engineering, etc.) If George Lucas didn’t take a leap with his dream of Star Wars, would the art of filmography be as it is today? He’s no faker.
• Also, nerds are easy to buy presents for. Whether it’d be beakers, a magnification apparatus, a coding related t-shirt, a star you named after them, an R2D2 mug, or anything to do with their passion, you are set! 😉

Friends that are nerds are the best kind of friends. They are real people and appreciate you for accepting that. They aren’t fake, they won’t use you and they have most likely calculated the best way to bring happiness to your world. Fact: Nerds are cool.