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Tour de Nerdfighting - Vancouver
I’m the one who walks into class and quietly finds a place to sit, next to the least scary looking people in the room. The one who excitedly flips through her textbook to get to the part on quantum mechanics. The one who is never quite sure she should be where she is, with the people with whom she is, or heading in the right direction. The one who constantly questions whether this, any of this, really matters. Today John and Hank showed me that it can, and that I have the opportunity to make it so. That there are others who get excited about particle physics. That there are other people who care about the fantastic chance that we get to be conscious of and observe the universe, and not to waste that opportunity.
My first thought when I woke up this morning was “I get to meet John and Hank today.”. That thought kept hitting me all day, but it didn’t finally get through to me until I was driving into the small parking lot across from the theatre. My nerdfighter friend and I went inside, got a couple of seats together, and tried to process our proximity to John and Hank. The atmosphere in the theatre from the moment we walked into the room was incredible, it was just like when my friend and I got excited talking about a recent video, but multiplied by hundreds. Then, after a short introduction, John came onstage and we got to hear and see him reading his words for us, shifting back and forth from one foot to the other.
Hank came on and sang, John came back and said some amazingly put together words on existence and the importance of thinking deeply about life and what his book was trying to say, Hank came back and sang a bit more, questions were asked and answered, Hank was shocked, some more songs were sung, and then the night ended with “500 miles”, an awesome song made more awesome by hundreds of nerdfighters joining in to a collective voice together. My friend and I were incredibly lucky to have chosen seats near where the beginning of the signing line was, so we had less than ten minutes to wait before our books were signed. My voice failed me when I actually talked to John and Hank in the signing line, so I couldn’t even thank them for all they’ve done for me, today and for the past few years. I realized when I was on my way home why seeing them seemed like such a huge deal: before today, I’d looked into their eyes (hundreds of times), but they’ve never looked back.
John and Hank, thank you for a perfect night. Thank you for giving me something that is important and special to me. Thank you for creating this amazing community that I feel so grateful to be a part of. Thank you for the crazy amount of effort that you put in to reach so many people, and thank you so very much for reaching me tonight.
