58 days until I leave Colorado and join the Peace Corps. It’s
been all excitement and annoyance about the medical tasks up until this point; that
was until the countdown app showed that I had less than sixty days left to get
my life in order, pack up all my belongings, and spend quality time with my
friends and family. What is this new emotion? Am I actually… nervous?
Yeah. A little.
To distract myself, I wanted to try rereading some of my old
favorite books. I picked up The Hobbit by
JRR Tolkien, and I couldn’t stop laughing after I read this paragraph:
“what is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description
nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call
us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than
the bearded dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about
them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly
and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along,
making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined
to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and
yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and
thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long
clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs
(especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it).”
It’s official. I’m Bilbo Baggins. Based on this description,
I’m a hobbit. I’m little, have no beard or magic, dressed in bright colors with
no shoes, curly brown hair, and a big laugh after my second dinner. My dad
laughed way too hard at this for my liking.
Anyway, the story is about a hobbit who goes on an adventure
and calls his story, “There and Back Again.” I know it is cliché, but I most definitely
feel like I’m preparing for an adventure. I am moving to a country none of my
friends and family ever heard of after all.
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Standard conversation
with my brother:
Brother: When are you
going to Somalia, again?
Me: Ummm… Never?
Brother: You’re
quitting Peace Corps already?
Me: Did you mean
Samoa?
Brother: Yeah, where
is that?
Me: In the middle of
the South Pacific.
Brother: Cool. Where
is that?
I’m going to title this blog “Where? And Back
Again,” to honor my hobbit-likeness and my family’s lack of geography skills.
