I’ve been thinking about it lately – kind of nerding out about it, really – that my obsession with reading and writing and words and this blog and books and ALL THAT can only be summed up as truly nerdy behavior. So, I admit it – I’m a nerd.

It’s not that bad of an association, really. After all, nerds seem to have unlocked a new level in this video game we call Life. All the usual opposites now apply: nerds are cool, nerds are the best people, nerds are what I want my children to grow up to be. (Hello? Remember: we homeschooled them. They now love to read, play D&D and wear flood pants. Mission complete.)

My first memory of the moniker “nerd” goes back to Happy Days, one of my favorite TV shows of the ’70s. Sure, Fonzie was The Coolest with his leather jacket and ability to snap a jukebox into obedience. But it was red-headed Richie I fell for, both onscreen and in real life. (It’s okay, Rick – deep down, you always knew you were a nerd.) Fonzie figured it out pretty quick, too: nerds make the best friends. They invite you into their families and are as loyal friends as golden retrievers.

And then in 1984, the gauntlet was REALLY thrown down with the movie Revenge of the Nerds. We all went to see it, like it was field research: where did we fit? Were we nerds or were we – what’s the opposite of nerd? – A cool kid? Popular? A jock? Good-looking?

The truth is that most of us fall somewhere in between. While it’s hard to “cross over” in that brouhaha we call high school – like Drew Barrymore’s character in another of my favorite Nerd-Wins-Big movies, Never Been Kissed – graduation lets you leave the crowd behind and find your real tribe: other people who are passionate about things like dressing up their dogs, making sourdough bread from scratch, playing video games (or watching other people play video games), collecting atlases or antiques or just cramming your head with knowledge about (fill in the blank).

As an adult, I myself have been obsessive (or still am) about reading (surprise!), geography (I’ve colored maps to help me memorize where countries are), scrapbooking (I will never be finished), ancient history, Biblical history, future history (Ha! I made that one up!), the cartoon Peanuts, the TV shows House Hunters International and Clean Sweep, art journaling, the Newbery list, the Caldecott list, my TBR list on my computer and many, many authors and podcasts of which I strive to be a completionist. I could probably go on. But then, so could you. AmIright?

All of this qualifies as Nerdy Behavior. One of the cool/nerdy things about the internet is that we no longer have to do our research on TV or at the movies anymore. The World Wide Web can help us make contact with actual people who are obsessive about the same things that we are. Or who are – at the very least -interested/fascinated/approving/admiring of the things that we shielded from the eyes of the cool kids and our older siblings.

One of the best side effects of suffering from Nerdism is that you learn not to care about what is “supposed” to be cool and just to follow your heart. Nerdity gives you the obstinacy to be the human God meant you to be in all your nerd glory. You can even nerd out about sports or fashion or cars – traditionally non-nerd subjects.

To nerd is human. So embrace it – your nerdiness is your gift to the world.