On Breaks, Blizzards, and Beginnings.

Faribault, MN - 29 Dec, 2025

 Dear friends, 

Many apologies for my absence the past few weeks! It was intentional, the end of the semester, finals, the holiday… I wanted some time to be still. In fact, I had planned this break to extend well into the month of January; however, I had a moment that felt worth writing about. 

Prospect Park, Minneapolis - 9 Dec, 2025

First off, some updates. My semester ended strong! Dr. Roberts has now placed me on strict (academic) writing rest. He wants me to wait to return to my paper until the 6th of January. As resistant as I may be, I have stayed busy with the holiday and far too distracted to write. 

The Kiresuks did Christmas early, on Dec 21st to be exact. This is because Taylor and I left for his parents’ home in Sioux Falls, SD, on the 23rd. We had a very lovely time with family on Christmas Eve, and I repaid them by getting up before dawn on Christmas day and heading to the airport. I spent the remainder of the holiday with 320 of my nearest and dearest (aka the University of Minnesota Marching Band). 

Rehersal with a view, Phoenix Az - 25 Dec, 2025

The band traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, to support the Gophers as they faced New Mexico in the Rate Bowl. I flew back to SD the next day (the 27th) and had a few more moments with family before Taylor and I hit the road. We rented a tiny home on the side of a lake about 2.5 hours from Sioux Falls. It is warm and cozy and, well, tiny! When I was plugging the address into the phone, I noticed that the area where we are staying was in a blizzard watch for the next 24 hours. 

Fog forming on the drive to the cabin - 27 Dec, 2025

“Woah, look at that!” 

Same drive, 20 mins later - 27 Dec, 2025

I looked up to find the car surrounded by fog. It was rolling across the roads like a heavy quilt, trying to tuck in the travelers for the winter weather ahead. As the sun dropped lower in the sky, the mystery of the fog turned into a bit of anxiety on my part. It was hard to see the cars ahead of us when the interstate changed to highway, and finally gave way to winding country roads. Taylor was in his element, and has thankfully become well versed at managing my car concerns. He put on our audiobook, The Hobbit, and later the soundtrack to the 1970s animated adaptation of the same name as we settled into the long drive. 

I love this soundtrack. The title tune, “The Greatest Adventure” has become something of an anthem for Taylor and me. Its sound is a product of the era in which it was written, folk-y but still modern. It features a steady drum beat, acoustic guitar, synth, and vocals artfully shaped with vibrato. It sounds corny, perhaps because it is, but I find truth in its lyrics: 

“The next great adventure is there if you're bold, 

Let go of the moment that life makes you hold. 

To measure the meaning can make you delay, 

It's time you stopped thinking and wasting the day.” 

As someone who searches for meaning in every moment, this song reminds me to go with the flow and enjoy the journey. I was, after all, in a car driving to a cabin for a few days of much-needed rest. Never an easy task, and certainly not for someone who has seen so much battle. As the fog thickened further, the soundtrack pressed on out of order. The car was again filled with music, this time it was the film’s whimsical cover of "Misty Mountains."

Unlike “The Greatest Adventure”, “Misty Mountains” does appear in the soundtrack of Peter Jackson's 2014 live-action adaptation of The Hobbit. Both adaptations faithfully follow Tolkien's poem in Chapter One: An Unexpected Journey. I know this, of course I know this. I love this soundtrack. There is nothing quite like the peace of a car ride and the sounds of movie music to inspire memory. 

A San Diego sunset - circa 2015

It was suddenly 2014 again. I was in the car with my mother. The rental had that smell—the one of cleaning chemicals and air freshener. The sky was dark and the air hot—San Diego in summer. We were there, I am sure, on one of my early trips to California for medical care. Mom would have been working at the university during the day and carting me between medical appointments (mainly plasmapheresis and neurology) in her time away from students. We ended up at UCSD hospital by complete accident and continued seeking treatment with my care team there as my condition worsened. We made this venture on many, many occasions. Departing each trip with a hope for a recovery: a new drug, surgery or procedure. A future that got further and further away each time we left home.

Plasmapheresis dressed in costume - Sometime in 2015

The poem that the song is based on, Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold, is about the journey before the cast of dwarves, hobbit, and wizard, and the significance of that adventure. They speak of great peril: the dragon Smaug, cold mountains, and deep dungeons. They speak of the destruction of Dale and the lessons of the past. But they also speak of treasure, and unthinkable reward should their quest be successful. It is a kind of sad-before-the-storm, a weary adventure. 

Somewhere along the commute from Laguna to Carlsbad, I purchased The Hobbit soundtrack on iTunes. Poor Mom must have been treated to a million and a half replayings of “Misty Mountains” and "I See Fire” (I have more stories about that song, particularly the artist, Ed Sheeran, whom I delivered a birthday cake to while working at Hobbiton. Another post, I suppose). It was a source of peace and comfort at a time when nothing was familiar or certain. 

“The man who's a dreamer and never takes leave,

Who thinks of a world that is just make believe, 

Will never know passion, will never know pain,

Who sits by a window will one day see rain.” 

Post thymectomy, UCSD hospital - October 2013

That trip, and my time in California as a whole, was a period of no agency. It was (seemingly) endless years of uncertainty, frustration, and discouragement. But we stuck with it and I did eventually find my treasure. But as with Bilbo and his company of dwarves, it came at great cost.

There is no returning from any adventure unchanged; I bear the lessons of this period like a crack in the pavement. I grow now like a dandelion on the sidewalk.

“The greatest adventure is what lies ahead, 

Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.

The chances, the changes, are all yours to make,

The mold of your life is in your hands to break.”

 

To think that these events were over a decade ago now. The fear and the anguish were all in my rearview mirror as the fog again surrounded the car. We pulled into the driveway of our cabin and settled in for the night. The snow started the next morning and continued on and off for the next 13 hours or so. We woke up this morning (the 29th) to the reflection of blue sky off glittering white; painfully bright and full of enchanting possibilities. 

In my happy place - 2023

There are sleds outside and a kettle on the stove; it will be a great day, a great spring semester, a great 2026. As the world celebrates a new year, a new start, I remind you that the challenges of the present will end. The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.  

Until next time, 

Hannah

Cozy writing corner in the tiny cabin - 29 Dec, 2025

PS - if you are seeking further Hobbit inspired music to start off the New Year on a positive note, might I recommend Billy Boyd's "The Last Goodbye" (done for the final Hobbit film), or if your seeking more of the animated Hobbit vibe, check out the soundtrack to Khraniteli (the Russian LotRs films, see my earlier blog post) OR just search for Bardcore on any streaming service, it will not disappoint.

10 points if you know who this is - 2014, just before my first trip to NZ