Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Dream is Happening


When I was in elementary school, a friend of mine introduced me to the J.R.R. Tolkien series, The Lord of the Rings. I wasn't much of a reader back then, and the series was definitely above my reading level. I had no idea what fantasy books were and I had certainly never heard of Middle Earth or even Tolkien. The only thing I knew about hobbits was the small, creepy culdesac in the avenues next to Salt Lake called Hobbitville. But I went for it anyway. Little did I know it would turn out to be the greatest series I would ever read. Peter Jackson and crew had just come out with the Fellowship of the Ring movie. Thus, fantasy books gained an aspect of "cool" without which, would have led to me to hide my new passion in it's entirety. All of the sudden, I found myself shopping for Tolkien based trinkets and memorabilia online and at book fairs. I poured over those books and watched the movies repeatedly. I longed to visit the Shire and live the life of a halfling.
Ironically enough, my physical appearance resembled that of a hobbit in a few ways. I was short for my age, had long, curly, brown hair, was in-shape(round is a shape), and I smoked a lot of Pipeweed... ok, I never smoked. But the rest was true. I belonged in the Shire.
After I finished The Hobbit for the first time, I began wondering when Peter Jackson would announce the production of said book into a feature film. It was inevitable that it would happen, just a question of when. I decided to write a letter to Jackson. Not only would I ask him about his timetable, but it seemed only fair that I offer my services as a hobbit look-alike as well. I could think of no better way to feed my Tolkien hunger. I am sorry to admit that fear got the best of me, however. Jackson didn't need more hobbits, and he certainly didn't need amateur actors. I had played Hamlet in the 6th grade school play, but that hardly compared. Besides, I didn't even know the address to send the letter to. So I destroyed it. My friends and family would have just laughed anyway.
My passion began to dwindle. I stopped wearing the replica ring-on-the-chain I had purchased and set it neatly in its miniature Mt. Doom stand on the back of my shelf. My dreams of the shire were over.
Fast forward to 2011. I am studying advertising at BYU. My friend Jon Wright approaches me to continue a conversation we had a few weeks earlier concerning a summer project. "What if the theme based itself on The Hobbit. They just started production in March."
Fast forward about one half of one millisecond. The passion and dreams were back. We are going to make it to the shire. But we can not do this alone.
Hopefully most of you have found that soft spot in your heart for making dreams come true. This blog is dedicated to Aimee Fresh, for donating the first dollar to our dream. Thank you Aimee!

If you don't feel like donating, help us with our social media endeavors. Blog, tweet, comment, like, retweet, text (or anything else) about us so as to get Peter Jackson's attention. Ideally, he will invite us to be extras in one of the greatest epics ever told, The Hobbit. So spread the word, The Road to the Shire is here. Stay tuned for more of our blog posts, videos, photos, etc.
Cheers, and God bless.
http://roadtotheshire.com/
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