It all got a little bit funky around my Sophomore year of high school. In fact, my sleep patterns were affected by outside powers from the beginning. Namely bedtimes and strict parents. With my bedtime at 10:30p, extracurriculars, girls, friends, and piles of homework that the second year, there was no way I was gonna make the cut. So I realized at some point I had to stay up. How then could I work without my parents' noticing, how could I go undiscovered? Well, I began to use the third-floor bathroom across from my room. I simply sat on the closed toilet seat and chugged away. My room was right on the other end of a short hallway, so after 10:30pm most weekend nights, ya boy would turn off his bedroom lights, cross the four-foot long patch of hallway to the bathroom and FB scroll, watch funny videos, call up friends and special friends, and inevitably, inconsistently do homework. Sleep took me in 1- or 2-hour long doses at first, after which I'd wake up and keep at the HW and play my music louder (but not too loud; AA parents don't play).

Around Junior year the rules slacked. After fire damage affected our house in the fall, spring of Junior year took on a new dawn. I was falling asleep regularly on my toilet bowl. I was overwhelmed by my schedule. Eventually, my bedtime slacked back farther and farther on little pockets of the floor of my living room, couches, chairs. Knocked out cold.

In my family, since I've first left for College, I . Bags stay packed, my bed at night was the couch at day. I learned the feeling of being transient and transitional, feeling like a traveller.

Its been this process that's taught me to sleep without borders. Reading Lord of the Rings has given me more than new critiques on Peter Jackson. The first part of the trilogy paints a picture of Frodo the traveller and dreamer who longs to take longer walks, who feels restless and just wants to go. His hobbit friends notice him taking longer and longer walks deeper at night and speaking with elves, the 'Big Folk'. To some it's unnecessary, to others naive, since travelling involves worries and preparations beyond romanticized happiness (like rain, ). His mission became more real and grimmer as he travelled, but he knew a little something from the beginning and had the courage to keep going.

Nonetheless that same spirit Frodo has rested in myself and many of us. It's a youthful willingness to part and move to new places. College, crashing with friends, couch-surf, tent, camping, overseas. Obvious mission or not, every one of us who sets out has this same courage. But I can't help but notice Bilbo's role in Frodo's heart for as travel. Bilbo shared stories and songs and treasures he brought back. Frodo's heart expanded as he imagined himself on such a quest. So this also is the same for us. Despite my ludicrous sleep habits, and even more ludicrous repertoire of locations slept in, this was the reason I'm a wanderer now as much as it's a helpful habit. I have fewer picks about where I sleep and focus energy on other matters while travelling. The reason I want to keep travelling whether back to college or beyond