College, it is a startlingly huge step for most all freshman. The journey to Erabor, its full of beast, orcs, trolls, elves, and dark forces that are left unmatched for hundreds of years. Almost equal right? The fear of what is new is huge. For school it’s a new place, people, friends, foes, teachers, just name it. Stuff like that is scary. No matter how tough you act everyone shares a little fear in this experience. Same goes for a dwarven party on a quest to reclaim their home land. This is why if there is one movie that all college freshman should watch, it should be The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

Bilbo, the main character, is a hobbit. He lives his life quietly and comfortably. Nothing un-expected happens to this little hobbit. Until the day that an old wizard arrives at his home and from there Bilbo’s life will never be the same. Let’s turn to the college freshman. Our college freshman’s name is Leo. Leo was sitting out on his porch all throughout his summer and nothing very eventful has happened to him in his life. Then came a letter saying that he was accepted to the university of South Carolina. Leo is scared being from a place quite far away from South Carolina. Upon arriving to his new home Leo finds himself in a new place he finds comfortable. Then there is a knock on his door, an older college student is at his door. Leo is intimidated while talking to this person. Later that day there is another knock at the door. Upon opening it Leo sees a heard of people and they file in talking and laughing. He finds out that they are in the same major as him and begins to hear about the terrors of professors and of exams. As one would expect this is too much for Leo to handle and he feints. How does this story have any correlation to the Hobbit? The story is just a rendition of the opening scene.

The next part of the story teaches us that we can’t always stay in our comfort zone. Because being uncomfortable is when you are learning and experiencing the most. Bilbo learned about this throughout the story. He is faced with new things at every turn from the loss of his pocket hanky to the orchish horde to the trolls. Just as our college freshman Leo must learn to be without his comfortable bed to facing the petrifying horde of homework to the terrifying professors who tell him that they have a seventy-five percent drop rate. These can be equally scary in some respects because if both Bilbo and Leo mess up their lives can be over.

But after using his talents to fight the trolls Bilbo finally begins to gain confidence in himself. He becomes armed with the blade not yet named. Then becomes a part of the team that he was placed into and really starts to pull his own weight. Our college freshman will become armed with knowledge and study habits that will help him succeeded in his quest for a graduation, diploma, along with a good job. He will learn the importance of the saying “cooperate and graduate.” He will learn that everyone is fighting though the muck and grime of homework and the fear of the cutthroat professors. 

Bilbo learns that he isn’t the isn’t the only one with problems at the end of the movie. He learns that while the dwarves may have relatively stoic about their situation they just work to fix it rather than let it get in the way. This same lesson is needed by college freshman. They need to learn to take action and fix their problems rather than just laying around freaking out about it.

As a college freshman you may need to learn how to be on your own and how to talk to people that you don’t know. You need to learn how to do the “college level” work which frighteningly enough you may not be good at. How to deal with people from different backgrounds, just as Bilbo did with the dwarves from Erabor. Although as college freshmen have help if they seek it out. It can come from many sources. Teachers, peers, tutors, help can come from anywhere. Bilbo learned his help can come from his peers, and Gandalf. It was Because of his ability to change that Bilbo was able to help his peers in return.

 The reason that all college students should watch The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is so they can learn to give up their differences and cooperate with each other. Keep in mind that this is not to say forget where you come from or your morals, because without those, we lose our sense of selves. But we do need to help each other find our homes no matter where it may be. The dorms, apartments or just, in general around campus. Freshman need to stick together and fight through the difficulties you are facing. Like it was said before we need to “Cooperate and Graduate.”