Concerning the Hobbits - Dan

My dear Bagginses and Boffins, Tooks and Brandybucks, Grubbs, Chubbs, Hornblowers, Bolgers, Bracegirdles, and Proudfoots [Proudfeet!]. Today is my 111th birthday! ...and I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve...

If I were a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins of the Shire, this is how I might introduce myself to any distant relatives who happen to be following my blog. But in reality, I am not a Baggins, I am not 111 years old, and if you're following this blog it's probably because I do like you half as well as you deserve and I hopefully know you at least half as well as I should like. And besides, instead of giving a speech I would rather you come inside my cozy hobbit hole, have some tea and seed cakes, and I'll tell you a bit about myself.

I am actually Dan Snyder of Waynesville, North Carolina. I am 22 years old, and I just recently graduated from NC State University with a degree in Biological (aka Ecological) Engineering and a minor in Spanish. I love the Earth and learning how to care for it, I delight in making and hearing music, and I am intent on continually serving the God who made both of these things. I am also a nerd in most senses of the word, I love to read, and I love dogs and cats. I like to have things organized and planned out, and I'm really good at paying attention to every little detail in the things that I do. I really don't like to beat around the bush; I would much rather we all just say what we're thinking. I love spending time with people, but I also need time to myself. I really love my home in the mountains of western North Carolina; in fact, I love most everything about mountains - the scenery, the weather, the camping and hiking, the small towns, the down-to-earth people, the curvy roads, and just about anything else you can think of. I'm going to miss these mountains when I'm halfway around the world, although fortunately I'm going to have some new ones to explore.

Despite my adoration of all things mountainous, I think I love the places where I have lived so far (Waynesville and Raleigh) in larger part because of the people and community I have found there. In Waynesville, I have spent the last ten years as a member of the wonderful Vine of the Mountains Church, where I took part in all sorts of youth group capers and was loved and encouraged more than I could ever have asked for. And of course long before that my awesome family - Bill, Beth, Jack, and Katie - has been here to teach, encourage, love, and annoy me (sometimes). At school in Raleigh, I found a different but equally wonderful church called Vintage21 which also surrounded me with support and provided an environment for me to grow like crazy as a follower of Jesus. While I still cannot pin down a specific time when I made up my mind to follow Christ, during high school and college these three families provided the guidance that cemented my identity as a son of God for life and beyond.

It is this new identity that has led me to defy all the cultural norms that are usually applied to college graduates. Having thrown those out the window, I am instead leaving behind career and traditional schooling to focus my life on knowing the Lord and on obeying his commands to serve and love people. I have been presented with an unbelievable opportunity that may only be available at this time in my life, and so I am doing a Discipleship Training School with YWAM to make Him the foundation for whatever it is that I end up doing in the future, be it engineering...or something completely different. Wow...I still can't get over how amazing this is. I can't wait to find out what I'm going to learn - about God, about people, about new cultures, about myself, about anything! - and I can't wait to be in New Zealand!

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