Dear quiet nerd,

You may be slightly offended by my choice of words. If it helps, I've been categorized as that my entire life. If you don't believe me now, you may change your mind when I tell you that when it comes to picking a seat in class, I pick the second or third row.

If you really are a quiet nerd, you'll know it's the perfect spot for you. It's close enough to the front that you can learn at your full potential, but not close enough that you get called on. You know the struggle of having a brain that contains copious amounts of useless trivia over things only you care about. So when 'Harry Potter' or 'the history of Western civilization' is mentioned in casual conversation, you struggle with the desire to chime in as well as the fear of doing so. Chances are when you are comfortable enough to participate in a conversation, most people won't understand you. It's not their fault that they haven't watched the childhood TV show you keep referencing or read the YA book series you keep mentioning or heard the throwback song you keep referring to. It's like having an inside joke with yourself.

If you're really a quiet nerd, you know the pain of doing test reviews and homework for the entire class. It's not like you seek it out. Usually, it's cause someone looks over your shoulder as grades are being passed out, says something obnoxiously loud along the lines of "wow you got a 95?", and pretty soon everyone wants to be your friend. Their standard greeting is "have u done the review?" and "can u send me pics of the homework?" More often than not, you can truthfully reply that you haven't gotten around to it yet, most likely because you got sidetracked by more useless trivia in the margins of the textbook.

If you really are a quiet nerd, you know the pain of stereotyping. Because you're quiet, and because you're a nerd, people assume that's all you are. As if people are two dimensional, and are defined by one aspect of that personality. Sports fans talk over you as if you weren't sitting in a plastic chair at a stadium in downtown, surrounded by hundreds of screaming fans yelling "C'MON REF," whilst smelling of beer and popcorn. Fans of music automatically assume that you listen to classical music in your free time. While I do admit that my taste in music is trash, it includes a wide variety of genres, ranging from Khalid to Maroon 5 to Andy Grammer. It's assumed that you haven't watched the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy. Well, in my case, they're right, because it went downhill after season eight, not because I'm a nerd. Marvel stans refuse to include you in their conversation. Granted, I haven't read many comics, but I have every movie memorized, and that should count for something. It's just something you, a silent dork, learn to live with.

If you are a quiet nerd, you know how to learn and grow in silence. While everyone else is stepping over each other to try to reach the top, you're getting there all by yourself. While everyone else is discussing their perfect grades and scholarships, you remain quiet, silently proud of them and yourself for getting there. It's not always that you can't speak up, it's that you choose not to. And I think that's something to be proud of. So, quiet nerd, embrace who you are, the nerd aspect of your personality included.

Sincerely,

A Fellow Quiet Nerd