Am I too old to be a nerdfighter?

In one of the groups I am in, someone said they felt a little creepy because there was a slight age gap between them an the creator of the group. Now, he was just talking about the particular topic of the group but I know at several times I have felt this way about nerdfighters in general. So, I thought I would blog about it giving examples of feeling creepy and then my thoughts on it.

Seeing John and Hank
Back in November I celebrated my 21st birthday, I also attended the KC nerdfighters convention with John and Hank, with another 21 year old friend name Jackie. While there I saw two of my friends who are 22 and 21 and I'm sure we all just kind of noticed something odd about the event. We were all surrounded by 12-16 year olds. I was about the 6th person to arrive at the event and even skipped my GIS class for it. (If that isn't the definition of nerd, I don't know what is) As Jackie and I started to talk to the random girls there, we heard about how they were excited to be starting high school, were excited to be in high school or were excited to start looking for colleges. We met two freshmen in college who had driven 3 hours to see the event and even they felt a little creepy, though way less than us. Aside from my creepy friends, the only other older people there seemed to be either real life friends with Hank or John or the parents of the book obsessed and totally awesome nerdfighters.

Getting friends to join
So, a very good friend of mine use to make fun of Jackie and me for spending so much time on nerdfighters and use to make fun of us for reading John's books because they are geared towards 15 year old girls, or the twilight generation if you will. However, I some how convinced him enough to read Paper Towns in which he read in one night and flipped out about how great it was. Since then he has watched the entire year of BH2.oh and read or watched various other nerdfighter things. I woke up this morning to an email that said he posted a comment on a group I'm apart of--at 2 in the morning. Now granted, I left his house around 1:40 but still, the fact that instead of going to sleep like any normal person would do (okay I sat and played Scooby-doo's 3d haunted house game with a friend for a bit... seriously, look into buying it and changing the ghosts face, it is hilarious ... annnnywho) he got on nerdfighters and joined the ning. We always joke to each other that he is going to turn into a 15 year old girl, and quite possibly at the rate of awesome he is going--it's entirely feasible. :-)

The ning and youtube
So, I use to be a part of the original brotherhood website--does that even exist anymore? I liked it because it was fresh, new and simple. We talked about NF (from henceforth will mean nerdfighter) t-shirts, and ripping Hank's songs from youtube to listen while away from the computer. I tried to start a discussion on how to make my dorm more ecofriendly and got maybe two posts. If I posted that here today, I would get a bajillion posts--that part I really like. However, I feel more than 80 percent of them would start with, I can't wait to live in a dorm! or well I don't live in a dorm yet but you could do x,y, and z. It also is weird when someone on the ning hits on me and then I realize they are 16. Most video responses or vlogs that have branched from BH2.oh are from people born in the 90s, to me that is bizarre! However, when we do the project for awesome, I see fellow nerdfighters my age climb out of the woodwork and it makes me feel a little less creepy.

Overall
I think this site, the idea being a nf, what nfs stands for and what it has created is amazing. In high school my group of friends were definitely nfs and we knew were were awesome but I think having the idea nfs to reinforce that for younger generations is really good. I think anything that promotes being active in your community, reading, celebrating being smart, being active in things like KIVA, and hank dressing as Carrie Bradshaw and hankrolling us all is something so positive and so awesome that is just blows my mind. I also think it is important for the 40 something year old nfs to tell the 30 something year old nfs about life, and the 30 something year old nfs to tell the 20 something year old nfs about life, and most importantly the 20 something year old nfs to tell the preteen and teenager nfs about life, high school, love, and to just be a mentor. My high school life would have been way better ( though it was pretty much an awesome experience) if I had a 20 something year old teach me about their experiences in high school and simple things like how how to get a male nf to like you, a female nf, because male nfs are a rare breed and really shy. So, basically I look at it from a less creepy place and more of an awesome big sister/ mentor role. Though I do wonder what Hank and John think about starting what some could consider a cult primarily of 15 year old girls. ;-)

And if any nerdfighters out there, male or female, would like some advice on life or high school feel free to message me because I'd love to help increase the level of awesome in your life.

DFTBA
Danielle