“Almost every adult American devotes tremendous time and energy to the maintenance of an invasive plant species called turf grass that we can’t eat,” said author John Green in his Buckley University commencement speech. “I think you should chose a better obsession.”

Wise words John Green. I don’t care much about lawns because I am more obsessed with you, John. Your Green is lusher than any grass I have ever seen. Lawn grass just sits there unproductively rotting away, but John, you actually do things with your life.

John, you are one of the world’s best gardeners — under Voltaire’s definition. You are: an uber famous author (the rather saucy type), a professional Crash Course Youtuber (#bless for my grades), fluffy haired Nerdfighter leader (insert salute) among other things. I am endlessly fascinated by your successes and amazed at how you have conquered your failures. Your life should be a motivational movie, but not like Justin Bieber’s or Katy Perry’s movie because you’re John Green and not in the music industry…yet.

You were one of the worst students as a kiddo. You ironically almost flunked English with a C- but managed to turn this around and mustered the passion to cultivate roses in your theoretical garden like The Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS), your latest novel, which has sold over nine million copies internationally and been translated into 47 languages. You have probably made your English teacher do a double-take.

“Education was just a series of hurdles that had just been erected before me, and I had to jump over in order to achieve adulthood,” Green said.

But that perspective changed when he realized education is not about getting grades or a job.

“[Education is] primarily about becoming a more aware and engaged observer of the universe,” Green said. “If that ends with college, you’re rather wasting your one and only known chance at consciousness.”

John Green, you help me to better appreciate life. You inspire me to be curious about my surroundings and confident about being passionate about quirky things, like physics or the fact that maps make fake cities to protect their copyright.

“I learned that some infinite sets are bigger that other infinite sets,” Green said. “I learned what iambic pentameter is and why it sounds so good to human ears. I learned that correlations shouldn’t be confused with causation.”

A double major in English and Religious Studies has nothing to do with math, but regardless John Green chose not to be ignorant to the beauties of life — like math for example. The Fault in Our Stars would have never been made if he wouldn’t have known that some infinities are naturally greater than other infinities. His search and thirst for knowledge has transformed him from a good writer to a remarkable writer. I am obsessed with you, John, because you have the ability to portray normal human life in an extraordinary way. I guess that’s why you’re a Nerdfighter.

“A Nerdfighter is a person who instead of being made out of, like, bones and skin and tissue, is made entirely of awesome,” Green said.

I am even a Nerdfighter. We are not a cult, though we have a salute that looks like the Volcom gesture but with our arms crossed. And our motto is only five letters long — DFTBA (Don’t Forget To Be Awesome) — and under these values we reduce what is referred to as “world suck” or problems in the world. “Project for Awesome” is an online event which Green puts on with Nerdfighters help to work and raise money for nonprofit causes. John, you give nerds a good name.

“Nerds like us are allowed to be on ironically enthusiastic about stuff,” Green said. “Like jump-up-and-down-in-your-chair, can’t control yourself love it. It’s just not a good insult at all like saying you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness.”

John, I love each of your five drop dead gorgeous books — Looking for Alaska (2007), An Abundance of Katherines (2008), Paper Towns (2008), Will Grayson Will Grayson (2010) and The Fault in Our Stars (2012). Gosh, they have even started to become movies. TFIOS made $306,517,901 worldwide  in the theaters, Paper Towns will be released on July 25 and Looking for Alaska will be coming soon.

I don’t even know how you managed to create all of these different things and all I know is that I want to make Voltaire as proud as you have cultivating your garden. I will embrace the weeds and flowers in a garden I can call my own.

“Try not to worry about what you are going to do with your life,” Green said. “You are already doing what you are going to do with your life.”

Knowledge is beauty, and now I am thirsty for it (in a non-vampire kind of way). You have taught me that even though the knowledge I acquire might be random, it will ultimately culture me allowing me to become remarkable in my field someday.

I am happy with my choices, I love this life, and I’m a nerd — I get excited about everything. While on occasion the grass may seem greener on the other side, you will only ever be the real shade of Green. I’ll find my own shade someday.