I grew up living in constant embarrassment of my parents, from my dad wearing his beloved zip-off pants and literally zipping off the pants legs in public, to the annual Mother's Day hikes that were a requirement and never something I was excited for in my youth. I envied my friends whose parents didn't make them sit at the table for dinner every night, or didn't care how long they spent watching TV or playing on the computer. It wasn't until I was older, towards the end of high school, when I started to really appreciate them as parents and as people in my life. I realized how many of my friends' parents were divorced, and I went from rolling my eyes at them being all lovey-dovey, to being grateful that they were, that they were married and happy together.

College was when I really started to enjoy their company as much as I did that of my close friends. I enjoyed coming home not to come back to Durham, but to see them. I started to enjoy our dinner table conversations more, whether they were about new Kardashian drama or politics or "Where Are They Now?" gossip, high school edition. That was when I realized how nice it was to have parents so willing and able to help me with my schoolwork, Dad with his knowledge in math and economics, and Mom with her help in researching for papers, then proofreading and editing them. "I have nerdy parents," I'd tell my friends, if something came up in a conversation about the two of them. I'd say it sheepishly, like I was ashamed or still embarrassed by them. But I'm not, at all, and even when I was in my awkward ages, when everyone was embarrassing and all that mattered in the world was how people perceived me, I don't think I was ever truly embarrassed by them.

My parents have helped me embrace the nerd inside me. I grew up loving to read, which people have told me since I was a kid that that was something they hated doing for fun, that they only did it if they had to for school. I always found that to be crazy. But then again, they probably had some sweet video games that I was never allowed to have. And I'm a still a little bitter that I was never allowed to have a GameCube, but I'm more grateful that I was raised to enjoy reading, for if I wasn't, I probably wouldn't like writing as much as I do. And I still love to read, and still find it crazy that people my age hate reading for pleasure.

So to put it in simple terms: if I'm home and I say I'm busy, it's usually because I'm hanging out with my parents, because I want to hang out with my parents. They're nerdy, but so am I. And we share 50 percent of our DNA, so I guess I kinda have to like them because of that, anyway.