It was the Fall of 1975, and I was sitting in a hot, stuffy classroom in James Madison High School (Vienna, Va.) struggling through Algebra II/Trig. I remember staring blankly at a complicated equation on the blackboard and muttering under my breath, “I know for a FACT that I will never use any of this crap in real life.”

OK, so I was right. Forty years later, I have yet to encounter a situation where I had to calculate the sine and cosine of a right triangle where the total area is 400, whatever the eff that means.

But I am eternally grateful that a group of guys working in the radiation department of the GHS Cancer Institute paid attention in class, understood that “crap,” and made it part of their life’s work.

I call them “The Nerds.” Three guys who, ten years ago, would have worn pocket protectors and who look like Central Casting for the Broadway adaptation of “The Big Bang Theory.”

Their names are Scott, Nick and Sindahl and they are the physicists who work with the radiation oncologists to calculate the perfect angles to deliver radiation that will ensure death to those pesky cancer cells.

I don’t know exactly how they do it — after all, it DOES involve math — but I know they study all the pathology reports, CT scans and X-Rays and somehow calculate the angles, frequency and strength of each patient’s radiation treatments.

They also counsel the oncologists and technicians over the course of the treatment cycle, and make adjustments to those angles, etc. Which is why they use Sharpies to make registration points rather than tattooing dots. I can tell you that they changed my registration points at least three times over the course of my 25 sessions.

The Nerds can be seen wandering though the hallways of the radiation center; they are pretty easy to spot in a sea of hospital scrubs and patients in flapping hospital gowns. They don’t have much in the way of social skills and I can tell they really struggle with small talk in the rare case when they have to speak with a patient.

But that really doesn’t matter. Because thanks to them and their super brains, I’m getting the ammo I need to beat cancer.

Thank you, Nerds. And thank you to your teachers and professors for giving you the knowledge that is saving so many lives every day.

You are my heroes.