Neville.

Let's be honest here: I'm a total nerd. I like to think of myself as like, a Hermione-ish nerd - with loads of intelligence and a nice body, too, who boys sometimes think about in class when they are bored. But, of course, I'm probably a bit more like Neville - only sometimes smart with a round-ish body, who is, though not entirely the most intelligent, entirely the nerdiest. But it's okay. I like who I am. This is the first year I've tapped into that incredible nerdiness and stopped being afraid of being good at math and staying at home on Friday nights to do homework. I'm a nerd who likes vintage clothing and novels fat enough to be coffee tables and stays up into the late hours of the night to read those fat, fat, coffee table novels. I'm a nerd who likes gorgeous nerdy boys who wear ties and are very good at math. I'm a nerd who likes her parents way more than a normal high schooler should. I'm a nerd who worries about her future at a prestigious university probably every other minute and is very upset about getting a 3.6 this term. I'm a nerd who wears red lipstick in public places and does yoga and uses adverbs correctly. I'm a nerd who adores the word "onomatopoeia" and once even used the word "antidisestablishmentarianism" in a conversation - correctly, mind you. I'm a nerd who sometimes says, "It's okay that I am sad, for it is the fault of the dementors and it is perfectly fine to eat lots of chocolate." I'm a nerd who would consider Liesel Meminger one of my best friends and I bawled compulsively while reading the last fifty pages of The Book Thief. I am a nerd who feels intimidated by cheerleaders and football players and other children who use commas incorrectly and say "haha" a lot and listen to crappy rap. I am a nerd who finds inherent joy in t-shirts that say things like "Funner - gooder than just plain fun" or shirts that have an apothem on a graph saying, "Can't touch this!" or shirts that have a melting ice cube proclaiming, "Solid, liquid, gas... They all matter!" I am a nerd who has a definite problem with correcting others grammar and spelling and letting them know that it is "their" not "there." I am a nerd who likes to speak in a fake British accent and just learned the word "vernacular" and have been waiting to use it ever since. I am a nerd - or, as my nerdy little sister would say,

Never

Ending

Radical

Dude.

Do you think I can be Hermione? Because I like her the best and I don't think I'm quite too rotund nor am I a man. And I don't plan on teaching school when I grow old. And I like books and have lots of hair and sometimes have to teach things to my friends when they don't listen in class or don't do their homework. I'd like to be Hermione.

I am a nerd and I am happy.

Write in cursive sometime.

All my love, Addy.

Post script: NEW WORD ALERT: petrichor (noun) meaning, "the scent of rain on the earth after a dry spell." I nearly cried when I learned this one.