It is true that I will never be able to quite give my words to you in the way you give them to me, but in lieu of a novel, here is short letter that I hope you will enjoy just as much.
Mr. Green, you outdo yourself every time you do just about anything.
Often I will read a new book and believe it is beautiful, and it will be, but then I will re read one of the books you have written, and my mind is in awe. It's like traveling from a light polluted town where seeing the big dipper seems extremely fascinating, to a stark desert where the moon has not risen yet and truly seeing the stars for the first time (over and over again) blows your mind. Your writing allows me to understand things about myself better than I could on my own, and that understanding has helped me survive the process of becoming an old young person in ways that I am eternally grateful.
On top of giving me literature to learn from, you have given me real life moments too, since we all know not everybody learns best from text (ie. Crashcourse). You were first introduced to me when I received An Abundance of Katherines as well as Looking for Alaska for my thirteenth birthday from my older sister Hannah. Our mutual love for you and Hank made us become even closer than we were before, organizing specific time in the week to watch your Vlogbrothers videos, and always ALWAYS going directly to each other when it came to news about the two of you, Mars, or AFC Wimbledon. As the relationship of the the Vlogbrothers grew, our relationship was directly related to it; my sister and I are the closest we've ever been and for that I am eternally grateful.
For my birthday last July, my sister surprised me with a set of pre-ordered tickets for the two of us to attend NerdCon. This just happened to end up being the best birthday gift I will ever receive. The two of us made our way to Boston and the best weekend of my life commenced. I looked around and saw the amazing community that is Nerdfighteria, and I became overjoyed at the thought that so many wonderful people connected in loads of different aspects could be united in such a way, and it is all thanks to you and Hank. I participated in and witnessed things like The Gathering of The Pizza Johns, and Let's Talk About Mental Health, as well as experiencing some of my favorite shows happen live such as Holy F***ing Science, Dear Hank and John, and Question Tuesday (on a Sunday) and for these few things out of many, I am eternally grateful.
Still, the best and most embarrassing thing to have happened that fateful weekend in February was when my hangry sister insisted we skip women of Nerdfighteria in order to "feed" and we left the convention center. There, standing not five feet from me, you were. And I completely blew it. I think I can chalk it up to the fact that it dawned on me finally, even after seeing you at opening ceremonies, that you are in fact a tangible human being just like myself, or maybe it was just that my biggest hero and role model ever was right there in front of me, but my senses decided to stop working, as well as my emotions and knowledge on how to human properly, and I short circuited. "The nerd incident" goes down in history with just a memory of an immediate panic attack, then myself trying to get out my prize copy of LFA and trying to remember to breathe and stop the tears and shock long enough to maybe actually say hi to you and perhaps get my book signed, but alas it wasn't meant to be as you had somewhere to go. I am fairly certain you had remained oblivious of "the nerd incident," and yet even so, the next day during the mental health talk, you mentioned something about how a lot of people, even yourself, were probably experiencing the same kinds of anxiety and panic and that it was important to remember that none of us were alone in it, and for that kind of message and understanding I am eternally grateful.
Thank you (and of course Hank too) for being genuinely good wholesome person, and DFTBA.
