The Hobbit- Chapter One: An Unexpected Party

Hobbits like the repeatability of a routine everyday life. As Bilbo says, “We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner! I can’t think what anybody sees in them.”

I don’t think I am hobbit-like, but since my childhood I’ve always had a distinctly deep and wide anxious streak. For example, I would burst into tears if Mom or Dad failed to arrive within seconds after school dismissed, and I was a home-body--always most comfortable when I was with my family.

I think surprises can be fun, but confess that they run the risk of making me nervous. Yet, I do find myself yearning to be more spontaneous despite being shackled by the unknown and the unexpected.

Still, I do think that although new experiences can be both fun and thoroughly enjoyable, the unknown is always lurking in the background, poised to awaken my old adversary--fear. By contrast, the familiar and the known beckon me: the comfort of a daily routine that is thoroughly predictable, shopping at the same store and easily finding the will power to pass up that special offer in the window of another.

My first international adventure occurred in 2003 when I spent three months in Budapest, Hungary. Just getting there immersed me in a sea of unknowns: my first solo airline flight, living alone in a tiny apartment, and surviving in a foreign country! Eight years later I found myself boldly setting off on adventure number two…India.

Alas, I digress too much! Let us return to The Hobbitt. Bilbo Baggins was chosen for his adventure by Gandalf, but there was also that Tookish part of him, compliments of his mother, that was kindled by an adventure that had wandered right into his hobbit hole: “Many a time afterwards the Baggins part regretted what he did now, and he said to himself: ‘Bilbo, you were a fool; you walked right in and put your foot in it.’”

Although I wouldn’t say that I have regretted living in India, there have been times when I thought, “What am I doing here?” Those doubts, however, often seem justified because I don’t automatically fit or blend in with this culture--I can never be part of the crowd.

During our family’s first two years in country that fact kept me in my “hobbit hole.” So, I tell myself, “Melissa, let this is be a lesson learned--you are the foreigner. Accept that reality! Let yourself be seen! Let people stare at you! Don’t let India immobilize you! Get out of that “hobbit hole” and enjoy the adventure!”