At one time, the Took blood in my vein dominates me, causing me an enormous, unstoppable thirst for adventures. Later on, I'm overwhelmed with the Baggins blood and wish to do nothing but staying home in my nice hole by the fire, with the kettle just beginning to sing! -- just as any other Hobbits will do.
A few years ago, before I commenced my career as a journalist, I was a real Took. I so eagerly wanted to see the world. Whenever I heard of an overseas scholarship opportunity, I would run for it. Whenever I heard of a contest or competition whose prize is travelling abroad, I would seek to take part and attempt to win.
But, I had heard only a few scholarships, contests or things as such, which could bring me to the world outside my homeland. And the chance that I could depart with those very few scholarships was so small. I had likely picked a wrong place of study. Scholarships or contests I knew of were never intended to students of a school of pharmacy like me.
Of course there are always those scholarships for would-be lecturers, but I was never among those with outstanding academic achievements, whose GPA is 3.50 or above and whose brilliance astonishes the lecturers; those who can hence access the scholarship opportunities.
At those times I had no idea how I would ever depart, how I would ever find the way to visit other countries, to travel to the land of my dreams, which that time was focused on Britain. My Took bloods overwhelmed me, but I could do nothing to fulfill its desperate thirst for adventures.
I decided to finish my study immediately. Many scholarships require a minimum of two-year work experience, so I thought I had to get that experience sooner. Then, maybe, I could get some chance to win a scholarship, though I had yet to see any scholarship availabe to pharmacy graduates.
But, I couldn't just earn a Bachelor's degree and find a job. The degree, for a graduate of a school of pharmacy like me, is not enough. I need the apothecary status in order to find a good job as pharmacist in Indonesia, so I took the one-year additional apothecary study, which would make eligible for a sort of a certficiate of competence as pharmacist. That time, it sounded like the most sensible thing to do to earn a scholarship.
But, it wasn't a smooth journey. After a year of study, I didn't pass the awfully horrible final exam and had to wait for another semester before I could give the exam another try.
I ended up doing a total of three interns in a clinical laboratory and two pharmaceutical manufacturers during the one-year study and the six-month wait, and they appeared to be a real test to my Took blood. They helped me find that I was a real Took, and that I therefore could never work in such places, which would oblige me to be in the same room, to meet the same people, to walk the same alleys and the same paths every day in my life. Gosh, how boring, how distressing it would be! I could never stand such uniformity!
So, in rather desperate attempts to escape from the prospect and to cut the dependency of my future to the results of the unnecessarily sophisticated final apothecary exam, I used the remaining few months of my wait to search for jobs that could be an answer to all my problems.
I searched for jobs in marketing departments of some health businesses (ones that I desperately thought could perhaps bring me nearer to my dreams of travelling abroad), while, due to my family's awful financial state, also applying for jobs unrelated to health matters but could still suit my taste; as long as it can produce money. As I like writing and novels and was so eager to use my English, I apply for some translating jobs and, finally, a reporting job in a local English newspaper.
I had some interviews, for both health-related and -unrelated positions, and ended up getting a job as reporter in the publishing firm I'm currently working in.
I had had no idea of what a journalist would have to do; no one I knew was a journalist.
But, then, after doing this job, little by little I realize that this is the very job that can fulfill my Took blood's thirst for adventures. Every day I meet different people, visit different places, and not just finally visit other places outside the island of Java, I finally also travel overseas, to places outside Indonesia; as exactly as what I had been dreaming of, though I still haven't seen Britain (anyway, I rather believe I will fly there, too, someday. I've only worked as journalist for 1.5 years; so I believe I still have many times to see the chance, if Allah gives me longer time to live).
Unfortunately, even before that particular dream of visiting Europe (particularly UK, Switzerland and Austria, plus Russia) becomes true, my Baggins blood has been taking control.
Especially in the last few months, I have lost my eagerness, my appetite to travel to Europe. And I've appeared to be not so as enthusiastic as I thought I would be when I finally fly with the giant, steel birds and visit the foreign countries.
Now I'm just a Baggin, and just as ordinary as any other Hobbits, who have no desire to do anything but sitting lazily in my warm Hobbit hole under the ground, while reading some books, waiting for the kettle to sing and baking cookies for the tea time.
How have I lost my Took blood? Where has it gone?
I have no idea...
