Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Hobbit-Likeness

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.



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. 

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