Tinto the Hobbit

As funny as it may sound, I think I'm going to devote some time to blogging. I haven't really blogged before, but I think it is worth a try to express myself, and type what I think (since I always tend to get into trouble when I speak before I think!) Hence, my first blog entry.

Over the past few months, I've found it increasingly hard to find someone to talk to. It's not that I'm a poor communicator at all! I have all these feelings that are trapped up inside me and I just can't let them out for one reason or another. I guess you can compare me to Frodo Baggins. I can't help but be curious about the rest of the world. Sure, I have trusty fellow hobbits who I can always relate to within the confines of my comfort zone - but I never felt that this was enough.

So I left the hospitable shire and went off half way around the world (literally, it was only a quarter of the way; I only went through 6 different time zones). At first, it was just out of curiosity. What's it like there? What is the culture really like? Why is there such distinct, colourful, diverse cultures in such a small place? I guess I can do the same in downtown Toronto, but it's not the same - I don't know how I found it so inviting to try to make it on my own in a realm where I knew nobody and may possibly not fit in with everyone. Yet, life was slow enough that everyone had a chance to breathe. A chance to sing. A chance to dance. A chance to smile. I don't ever recall having to force a smile, nor have I ever felt someone else's smile radiating so much that I can harness that warmth to flex my own facial muscles.

Now I'm back. Now I receive blank stares and indifferent gazes from unfamiliar faces. Ah, the cold, stoic persona typical of North Americans, frozen in appearance by the bitterness of winter, frozen in its core by the numb, systematic brainwashing of its culture. It's weird, this society that prides itself in "individualism" - it continues to confine and limit us, on appearance, to the very stereotypes it says it wants to be rid of.

-Tinto