They can be annoying. They may be all too ready to share knowledge that literally no one else cares about with everyone they can find. They may be incapable of holding a conversation about “normal things” or be really excited about things that are far from normal. These are attributes you have used to describe someone at some point in your life. I know this because I have too. We all know nerds. But I would also argue that this is because we all are nerds.

When someone is getting to know you, they ask about your interests. You may tell them quickly that you like sports or music or television without going into much detail, but it is safe to say that within a couple questions this conversation could touch on the team or artist or show that you can’t get enough of. You can say where the third-string quarterback went to college, you can sing everyone of this artist’s songs-even the really, really old ones, you know the backstory of the character that showed up for like three episodes in season two but totally changed the tone of the whole series. Or maybe it’s an author or book, a science, a car, an animal, or a time in history. It only takes a little digging and pretty soon, everyone’s inner nerd is showing to the whole world.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we are all nerds, we just don’t like to admit it because “nerd” brings with it images of a specific kind of nerd and as long as we’re being honest, the types of the nerds that aren’t our type of nerd are annoying. But I think we should embrace our nerd-yness. Really what a nerd is, is someone who is stoked out of their mind about something-whether metalworking, One Tree Hill, or skydiving.

The variety of nerds in the world is what makes the world awesome. I, for example, know nothing what so ever about cars. My eyes glaze over when I hear conversations about how much horsepower a certain diameter of cylinder will give a 1990 Dodge Charger, but I like driving in cars and I am so glad there are nerds out there who love cars. In the meantime, I know that a woodpecker’s tongue anchors in its nostril and you cannot tell me that your life isn’t better from knowing that.

I want us all to embrace our inner nerd and let them out more often. You might make connections with people you never expected, and we all might learn to be a little more tolerable of other species of nerd. The world is an incredible place with a lot of problems to get worked out and we all know that the people who solve them will be nerds too. So let your nerd flag fly, and be excited that other people are nerding out too.