#nfstories

P4A time is full of so many stories about people doing incredible work around the world to decrease worldsuck. Most recently, that has included me and my nerdfighter girlfriend, Amanda, as we started a non-profit at the beginning of this year to better our community for adults. To give them structure to more be a villager and build the village. I'm real proud and hoping you'll check out what we've created and how we're made a difference in our community, and if you really believe in it, you'll support us with a vote, comment, or a like and and sharing it far and wide!

I also hope you'll partake and contribute to P4A in some way that you see fit. Maybe I'll see some of you in all the spaces that surround P4A time! Message me and let me know!

I enjoy that I keep coming back to Tumblr in nerdfighter related ways to tell stories and share something.

Best wishes and DFTBA,

Last week I conducted a (very) informal Twitter poll asking nerdfighters what has held them back from contributing their #NFstories to @road2nf.

If that last sentence made no sense, let me explain: my friends and I run The Road to Nerdfighteria, a worldwide multimedia project in which nerdfighters share their stories on how they found Nerdfighteria and what the community means to them. Nerdfighters can share their stories in the form of videos, blog posts, artwork, photos… basically any way you can tell a story. 

It’s been going on for 11 months now, and as we near the one year anniversary of the launch of this project, I’ve started thinking about the people who have supported the project but maybe haven’t shared their story yet, and why that might be.

The part of the poll that surprised me the most was the 32% who felt like they didn’t have much of a story to tell. Admittedly, the sample size is rather small, but at least ten people feel like they don’t really have a story to share. To those ten people, I respectfully disagree: I think you do have a story worth sharing. It might just be different from the one you think you should share.

The prompts for this project are: How did you find Nerdfighteria? What does Nerdfighteria mean to you? I think people may get hung up on the first question because of one of two reasons:

1. They don’t remember.

2. Their story can be summed up in a sentence.

Honestly, it’s fine if you don’t remember. We’ve featured stories from people who don’t remember when or how they happened upon Nerdfighteria.

Others may feel like their story is pretty basic: “My friend showed me this video. I read this book. That’s it.” And that’s okay, too. We featured people whose stories could be summed up just like that. However, they chose to give more context to their story: they shared what their life was like before Nerdfighteria, how/why all the events in their life led to discovering Nerdfighteria, and how their life has changed since. Those stories can get super interesting.

But maybe you don’t have a life-changing story like that, with a big Before and an even bigger After. That’s okay. Your road to Nerdfighteria doesn’t have to be a novel.

In fact, the stories I’m most interested in don’t even answer the question, “How did you find Nerdfighteria?” The stories that fascinate me the most are those that come out of the question, “What does Nerdfighteria mean to you?”

When I hear that question, a number of stories immediately spring to mind… 

STORY 1

Four years ago I took my first trip to Canada. I’d been quietly making YouTube videos for a year and a half, but I had no YouTube friends or any internet friends. At the time, the concept of making a friend through the internet was completely foreign to me. 

I was taking this trip to Toronto to attend this new thing called Buffer Festival, the first film festival for YouTubers. As excited as I was for international solo traveling, it also terrified me. While I had traveled solo before, this was the first time I would be in a foreign country without knowing anyone there.

I needed to make friends there. A friend. I needed one friendly face.

Miraculously, I found this online group of solo travelers also attending Buffer Festival, and through this group of Lonewolves I was able to make friends. Not just internet friends but real life friends. People who were kind and friendly, people who went out of their way to make sure you felt included.

I later learned that the people who founded this group were nerdfighters, which of course made sense. They cared about community, about creating a space where people could find friends and help each other navigate Toronto. That was the first time I saw the kindness of nerdfighters in real life.

STORY 2

Two years ago, Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers were going on tour, and their first stop was in Chicago. At this point in my life, making friends through the internet was still a new thing for me. I’d made a few friends online, but it was not something that came naturally to me. I still felt clunky and awkward trying to initiate friendships online, so I wasn’t really good at the whole reaching out thing.

I didn’t know anyone else going to the concert, but I joined the Chicago Nerdfighters Facebook group to see if they were planning a meetup. Thankfully they were, and before the concert I headed alone to the meetup, hoping to make nerdfighter friends. 

Most of these people already knew each other, and I wasn’t sure where to insert myself. After some awkward smiling and waving, I found myself sitting next to a young woman who also didn’t know anyone there. She was warm and friendly, and talking to her helped calm my social anxiety.

Later I ran into some old internet friends, one of whom I was meeting for the first time in real life. With my old friends and my new friend, we headed to the concert together and spent the evening rocking out to nerdy songs.

After the concert we headed our separate ways. It was late, and I was supposed to take the subway to a garage, where my car was parked. My new friend, a Chicago native, offered to ride the subway with me. (She was parked in that garage, too.) As we rode the subway, I started to get motion sickness, and she offered to keep me distracted by talking about our shared love of Doctor Who. (It worked.) When we got off the subway, she went out of her way to make sure I got to my car safely. We hugged like we’d been friends forever and parted ways.

That night, I learned that nerdfighters, regardless of whether they know you, look out for each other. It’s a very special quality, and I’ve seen it many times in Nerdfighteria since that night.

STORY 3

Two months ago I was at the cinema with a couple of coworkers to see Wonder Woman. One of my coworkers brought a friend of hers, because “I think you and she would get along.” 

We were waiting in line at the concession stand, and her friend and I hit it off right away, talking about Harry Potter. At some point in mid-speech she gasps and points at my shirt. I happened to be wearing a DFTBA shirt that day.

Immediately it clicks, but I have trouble getting the words out. “Are you…? You know DFT…?? You’re a…???” For a solid minute we’re both just geeking out, unable to say actual words, only excited squeals and high fives. Both my co-workers are looking on with confused faces, but they know something special just happened.

We both tweet about meeting a nerdfighter in the wild because how often does that happen?? And right up until the movie starts, we go through each other’s Crash Course in Nerdfighteria involvement: how long have you been a nerdfighter? What nerdfighter things have you done? Which other YouTubers do you watch? Have you met Hank or John or Rosianna? Read the books? Gone to concerts? Harry Potter Alliance? Project for Awesome? VidCon? NerdCon?

You have to understand that where I live, it’s extremely rare to meet a nerdfighter in the wild, much less one you get along with so well. She was incredibly friendly and cool and did I mention she’s a Harry Potter nerd? 

I was 100% comfortable with being incredibly nerdy with this awesome new person, which was a far cry from how I was when I first discovered Nerdfighteria six years ago. When I found Nerdfighteria, I was this super shy nerd who was struggling to find other nerdy adults in my post-grad life. Now, it’s easier than ever.

Nerdfighteria has shaped my adult friend group, taught me how to be kind and helpful, and given me so many cool experiences and stories to share. The stories I have because of Nerdfighteria are what make me the person I am today.

I think anyone who’s had a brush with Nerdfighteria has some story to share, something about it that has made an impression on you. Something that sticks. Maybe the story isn’t your road to Nerdfighteria, but it is a story about Nerdfighteria that has some personal meaning to you. 

That’s the story I want to hear.

.

.

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This community has affected me by being there, by teaching me about the world. It truly proves that there are people who get excited about things that help other people and that people can truly do amazing things when they combine their efforts.

Sometimes it's just nice to know there are real people doing real things for others just for the sake of doing that, to decrease the ever growing world suck.

It even gives a smile on a sad day, and who doesn’t need that? What other community known to mankind celebrates puppy sized elephants while simultaneously doing good through its existence? None, straight forward and simple. I drifted far from my original point but I guess all that blabber was trying to prove a point.

This community changed my life and many others by simply existing.

-Anna

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Nerdfighteria, it's helped me cope and learn to love the fact that I myself am a nerd. Along with that, John and Hank have both taught me soooo much, and I’m glad I subscribed when I did (2009).

I’ve learned (mostly) life applicable things, trivial things, and how to safely put stuff on my head. I could make a much shorter list of things Nerdfighteria hasn't taught me. I’m very grateful for John and Hank for starting Nerdfighteria, and giving us all a community to share and love.

To be up front about it, your videos saved my relationship with my brother, Donovan.

He was my absolute best friend growing up, the person that everyone else had to live up to in order to be even considered a decent person.

He was my hero.

He’s three years older than me, and he was a protector as I went through the struggles that “high potential” kids have which aren’t always understood by those in authority positions.

All my teachers wanted to move me up a grade, which ruined the friendships I had cherished as ten-year-olds do. Fast forward six years, and my brother and I grew apart pretty quickly.

I was president of a couple of clubs at school and he was off to Vanderbilt that fall. We stopped telling each other everything, and I didn’t know what to do to keep talking.

We were driving to visit our grandmother who lived an hour away, and it was getting late.

We were keeping each other awake, blaring music and singing at the top of our lungs.

It was one of the best memories I had with him, and then it got better.

As a car passed us on the highway, my brother (pointing, reading a bumper sticker) yelled, “DFTBA!” And looked at me expectantly. I thought he was crazy, and he just kept repeating,

“Don’t forget to be awesome!...Vlogbrothers...John... Hank...none of this rings a bell?”

When I still didn’t understand, he just told me to go on YouTube on my phone and search “John Green pennies” because he couldn’t remember any specific title.

That was it.

Three minutes and fifty seven seconds, and I was hooked. We sat in my grandma’s living room until past 2:30 that morning watching any video that came up.

The most popular, related to the current one playing, and all of Hank’s songs. Since that day, we would run into each other’s room and talk about the videos for hours.

I also have a (totally healthy) obsession with Jane Austen, and watching all the Pemberly Digital projects with him has been second only to reading them in the first place.

We have read John’s novels together, and cried for hours.

This Christmas, my brother made a donation in my name for the P4A and it was the most amazing thing anyone could have ever done for me.

Without ever watching a video, our parents soon picked up on who we were speaking about when ‘John and Hank’ were mentioned, which is astonishing when they can’t even remember the names of our closest friends. I could list off one hundred other things about being a Nerdfighter, but most importantly is saying thank you.

Thank you for doing this and putting yourself out there which is so difficult to do.

Thank you for leaving your children something to be proud of when so many are left with nothing.

Thank you for turning Nerdfighters into Nerdfighters by decreasing world-suck.

And thank you to your wives and families who support you as you change lives on a daily basis.

Thank you for inspiring me personally, and showing me how easy it is to be passionate about writing and words. I thought this story was worth sharing, and whether it is read by none or one or twenty five, I’m glad I wrote it down, and I’m glad my brother read DFTBA from a bumper sticker on the highway.

I hope someone smiles at the words on this page, before they are swallowed by the deluge of love and care sent by people all over the world with stories just like my own.

Many good wishes and blessings.

https://tbfighters.org/

John and Hank have inspired me, and many of my friends, to continue helping to decrease world suck. Throughout the years that I have watched them, they’ve introduced me to lots of cool channels (like the Brain Scoop, Veritasium, etc.).

The brothers have educated me in literature, biology, world history, current world problems, and a lot more I can’t even think of. They’re simply awesome.

Erin

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John and Hank haven’t just affected my life, they’ve more like shaped it.

I was fascinated by their videos as a little middle schooler, and in high school, I still find time to watch them. They taught me to imagine thing complexly and to not be afraid of who you are and what you believe in.

Had it not been for them, I wouldn’t have hordes of nerdy (and totally not lame) jokes, poetic and beautiful thoughts from equally beautiful places, and ideas and concepts that I had never thought about before.

From them, I learned so many things about the world, and this in turn inspired me to be more curious about everything around me. I learned to imagine people complexly, and that doing the best things you can with what you have is awesome.

Their videos connected me to my college-bound brother and my homeschooled friend, but more importantly, myself. I think, from John’s enthusiasm about TFiOS, I was inspired to write the novel I want to instead of wishing I could.

In short, Nerdfighteria has a special place in my heard alongside the squishy ventricles and blood. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Carolyn S.

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The Green Brothers have shown me that I can be my nerdy self without having others bother me about it because, there are hundreds of us, we are all Nerdfighters.

It gives me a sense of security, while being able to enjoy living my life how I want to live it.

Thanks so much John and Hank for being there for all of us and giving us a part in the world.

I love you guys!!

Hank and John saved my life and they don’t even know it.

It was 2009 and I was struggling.

Then, I stumbled upon Accio Deathly Hallows, my first Vlogbrothers video and my first introduction to the Wrock community. Hank and John helped me find a community who cared if I was alive or not. But it did much more than that.

Nerdfighteria gave me a purpose, to decrease world suck, to do good with my life, and so I slowly started to.

Vlogbrothers gave me something to look forward to three times a week; it is still something I look forward to. It also showed me how not alone I really was.

John struggled with mental illness and Hank suffered from an invisible disease: here were two people who understood what I was going through.

I have never met either of them and I’m not quite sure I want to.

I wouldn’t know what to say, besides thanks, and they wouldn’t understand what that single word means. Because there really isn’t a way to tell someone that they helped keep you alive in your darkest hour, that they taught you how to smile again, how to laugh; that they gave your mother her daughter back.

Hank and John changed my life, so now I change others. I coach people with special needs and spend as much of my time working with them as I can. I do good wherever I can, because that is what Hank and John taught me. That is how they affected me.

The Vlogbrothers make me laugh and helped me accept the fact that I actually like learning on my own account which has resulted in me telling the world that I do watch more documentaries than normal films.

Hank has increased my joke collection by around 50%, which my friends love, by the way. He has also helped me rediscover my love for science, thanks gratefully.

John has put me off reading the end of books. I now leave each book with about 10-20 pages left to read. Which is a good thing because it lets my imagination go wild.

In the short hand, the Vlogbrothers are one of the best things to ever happen to me.

(@laurasobsession.tumblr)

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John and Hank are simply amazing. They’re smart, funny and they’re my heroes. I can watch their videos for hours. They taught me so much: the Crash Course vids, SciShow, the Vlogbrothers… My understanding of the English language has improved greatly since I discovered the duo.

Sara

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I enjoy the content and appreciate their optimistic outlook.

I’m new to the Nerdfighter community.