Am I Too Old to Be a Nerdfighter?

Saturday night we had the great privilege (and straight up joy) of hosting Vlogbrothers John and Hank Green while they’re on their nationwide Tour de Nerdfighting to promote John’s new (NYT #1 bestselling!) book The Fault In Our Stars.

Here’s a little video we put together from the event. I’ll warn you in advance to turn down the volume on your computer before hitting the play button, unless you want to startle your entire neighborhood with the sound of 1,100 screaming Nerdfighters:

I’ve had a few days now to try to put together the words to describe this night, but all I keep coming to is one single adjective – AWESOME.

That’s what Nerdfighters are all about – being Awesome. DFTBA. Don’t Forget To Be Awesome. And not awesome because you have the right clothes or the latest iPod, but awesome because of who you are.

And I can tell you, Nerdfighters are good people. Well mannered. Polite. Intelligent. Interested. And excited. Excited for books. Excited because their favorite author just walked out on stage. Excited to sing along to a song about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Excited to be alive, and engaged, and talking about what it means to be alive and engaged.

The performance was easily the most fun I’ve ever had at a book event. Hank had everyone up out of their seats singing and dancing. Watching the crowd do a wave with those bright blue books from the back of the house was mighty impressive. And the scene at the signing table was incredible. There was so much love and gratitude for John’s work, and those feelings were obviously reciprocated. The Greens are as grateful to have their fans as the fans are to have them. It was a beautiful thing to see, and I feel lucky to have been there. Also beautiful was the sight of so many stacks of well-loved paperbacks. These readers are into Green’s books.

Many readers came up to John and Hank at the signing table and told them they’re their heroes.  Those brothers are my heroes, now, too. First of all, they’re getting thousands of young people exciting about reading. Second, they’re providing an antidote to all of the hipster apathy and devotion to cool that’s invaded a lot of young culture by encouraging their fans to forget cool and just be genuine. Be real. Be thoughtful. Be awesome.

So what I want to know is, even though I’m 30, am I too old to be a Nerdfighter? Because I want to sign up.

Thank you to John, Hank, to the volunteers who helped run the event, and to everyone who was there that night. It was an unforgettable evening for all of us here. If you couldn’t make it, the brothers live-streamed the whole show, you can watch it here. And you can check out more pictures from the event here.

DFTBA.