When you're the only one in your friend's group who can quote the Lord of the Rings trilogy by heart from beginning to end, it's hard not to feel like Aragorn when he finally becomes the king of men. Sure, your Hobbiton-bound buddies do not need to kneel to you, but at the end of the day, you're the one wearing an ancient crown and marrying the elven, immortal love of your life.
LOTR fans are a different breed of lore enjoyers. We delight in the details of things, like the verb conjugations of ancient Elvish and the specific minor differences between the books and the movies, but at heart, there's nothing that could dissuade a real Lord of the Rings fan from avoiding the saga altogether. Unlike other fandoms like Harry Potter and Star Wars, nobody ever grows out of LOTR. If anything, the more we know about Middle Earth and the more times we experience Frodo and Sam's journey to Mordor, the more we wish we had hairy leathery feet and impish curls.
Becoming a hobbit and joining our fellow LOTR obsessives in the Shire would be the dream. Until we get on that elvish riverboat in Rivendell headed to the Undying Lands of Valinor, we must simply enjoy the Lord of the Rings memes still here for us on Earth.