Day 63: The Newest Minion

With the start of the new week, my work study also begins. Last term I had the peculiar misfortune to be placed on the carpet team. For that job I spent 15 hours a week cleaning carpets, upholstery, and other spills across campus. The actual team was great and we quickly became somewhat of an oddball family. But the work was less than stellar and I never want to be called in again to clean blood off of the carpets in the boy’s dorms. This term, as mentioned in a previous post, I have the wonderful opportunity of being placed in the History Department for my work. Now I get to spend 15 hours a week working for my professors and tutoring students in my chosen field.

Day 63 brought with it the first day of work and much to learn. One of the first things I learned was that my job title was not “Work Study Student” but rather “History Minion.” Apparently the history professors have been calling their workers “minions” for quite some time. As of now, I am the newest history minion. It is a title I will bear with amusement and pride.

Hiking was a rather sordid affair. I didn’t have enough time to fully enjoy myself out on the trails and ended my walk shortly after only 3.98 miles (6.4 km), bringing my total for the weekend up to 16.87 miles (27.14 km). It was an unpleasant walk, too hot and humid for my liking. By the time I made it back to my dorm, I was hot, sweaty, tired, and not looking forward to the small mountain of reading I had already accumulated.

The hobbits at this point are still continuing their journey through the hills and valleys of the Lone-lands. The journey for them is much more difficult as immediate danger threatens their every step and Rivendell seems so far away. The burden of the ring and his wound weighs heavily and Frodo and his friends look on, unable to aid him.

Today there are few parallels to draw between my life and the journey of the hobbits. I am locked away in a cushy institution with challenging classes, three meals a day, good friends, a bed to sleep in, and more knowledge at my fingertips than I know what to do with. Even when my walks are unpleasant, they do not bring with it the peril the hobbits were facing nor that race against time and an unseen enemy. My life right now has very little in common with the lives of the hobbits as they struggle on to Rivendell. However, it is in this discrepancy that I have come to appreciate my life more. I realize that there is much I take for granted, not unlike the hobbits before they left their Shire. I hope to learn to treasure the many things I have been granted in life and realize the beauty of my own Shire as I continue this journey.

The Road Goes Ever On and On
~ Daisy Buttons