'How DNA Changed My Life' by Abi
Created | Updated Mar 3, 2003
When I came to write this article, I was surprised by just how much of an influence the works of Douglas Adams have had on my life. I had naturally assumed that my knowledge of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy had begun when I first read the book.
I was thirteen and about as shy and awkward as a child can get. I had borrowed the book from the school library ahead of a school trip from hell. As a child I suffered with debilitating homesickness and the thought of being away from home for a whole five days was almost too much to bear. I am not even sure why I picked it up - it might have been that I was impressed with the relative cheapness of it, but it was more probably the words Don't Panic inscribed in large friendly letters. Every time, however, I felt sad I would read the book and I would laugh and I would feel better. I felt like I was being included in a private joke, that there was someone else with the same outlook on the absurdity of the world and universe. Douglas had a great gift of making people feel like they had come home. The one thing I could never forgive him for was that this world was fiction. I would never own a babel fish! I would have to revise for GCSE French! I would never get to be the receptionist at Megadodo Publications. 
The following year, my father took a house in Devon for a month and my brother and I spent August fishing for crabs, eating chips, playing the text version of the game. Though we never did get a decent cup of tea on the Heart of Gold. At university, other fans would crowd into my tiny room in order to listen to my tapes of the radio series. If you could have told me then that I would be working on the real life guide I wouldn't have believed you for an instance. I am not even sure I believed it when I stood next to Douglas making a cup of tea. I just smiled while inside I panicked. What do you do when you meet someone who has bought such joy into your life? Some how 'thank you' didn't seem sufficient.
It was only a couple of weeks ago that I remembered talking about the television series in the playground - not that I was allowed to watch it being eight at the time and it probably being past my bedtime. Unfortunately the one girl who had seen it had got rather confused and seem to think that Ford was made of beetle juice.
I am ashamed to say I never did return that copy to the School library, perhaps I should send them a replacement copy. Thank you, Douglas for all the joy you bought and happy birthday to The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You haven't aged a day.
