19-years-wise with my first year of college done and the whole world in front of me, I set out this past summer thinking that I was going to have the usual study abroad experience which includes making new friends, meeting interesting people, and having fun and unique experiences in Spain. People who come back from their trips always tell you that they had the most amazing time and always recommend doing the same, so I was thoroughly prepared to have a good time. Knowing all of this, however, did nothing to prepare me for the dramatic impact that walking the Camino would have on my life. I did not simply go on a study abroad trip and have the experience of a lifetime; I came back with a new perspective on life and a new way of carrying myself. I am not a different person, but a truer version of myself, and I will explain a little about how the Camino brought me to this point.
For those of you who do not know, Dr. Kip Reddick (who is his own grand story in himself, which you should hear if you get the chance to meet him) takes a study abroad class every other year to Spain to hike El Camino de Santiago, a historical religious pilgrimage that has been traveled for over a thousand years by people from all over the world. There are various routes, but we took, in my opinion, the most authentic path, starting in southern France and going across mountains, plains, and forests to the western Spanish coast. We walked over 600 miles, and thinking about that even now after completing the journey is still staggering to me. But it is not the quantity of the miles that had such an impact on me – though they definitely did a number on the pilgrims’ shoes, legs, and will-power – but rather the depth that each step had in it and the experiences that came with them.
The average person will walk 110,000 miles in their lifetime, but these 600 are by far some of the most meaningful ones I have yet to experience. On the trail, each step you take brings you closer to your daily destination: the next town where we would finally rest after waking up before the sun almost every day. Each step also brings you new faces, new scenery and elevations, new rivers and streams, and new pains in seemingly every place in your body. Each step signified progress being made in reaching Santiago, the symbolic destination at the end of the Camino, and our final destination 90 km further to the coast.
Here I must go into more detail and give special attention to this part of the journey. There really are no words that can justly describe the feelings I had when seeing the coast. Feelings of relief, excitement, joy, fulfillment, and so many others that I didn’t even have time to register welled up inside of me. Smelling the salty air and feeling the ocean breeze coming at us and then finally running into the water was one of the most gratifying and humbling things I have ever done. Knowing that my feet alone had brought me across an entire country also made it one of the proudest moments in my life. With all of this going through my head, I shed some tears and laughed with pure joy at the fact that I was now staring at the ocean after a seemingly endless battle with the earth to get there. These moments will forever be ingrained in my head with an indelible mark on my life that is invisible to others, but evident to me with how I live each day.
This journey and the moments I am describing would not be the same without the people that I walked with. As important as these personal experiences are, they would be nothing without the friends, who I feel more inclined to call family, who I had along the way. The relationships you have while walking the Camino are absolutely vital to your journey. There are days when the only thing that gets you through and keeps your legs moving is a conversation to keep your mind off of the pain, or when having kind words and an interesting companion to share the evening with gives you a fulfillment that you didn’t know you needed until then.
As pilgrims, we have an obligation to each other to give ourselves completely over to the Camino physically, mentally, and spiritually, and to also be there for others when those days that are too tough to get through alone come along, and there are certainly a few of them for everyone. I feel so lucky to be able to say that I truly gained a family in the people that I met on the Camino. I have so much gratitude for and admiration of my Camino family that is made up of people all over the world, and I’m honored to have been a part of their journey and to have had them in mine.
The last thing I will say about the Camino is that of all the things it has blessed me with, the thing I am most grateful for is the love I received and learned to feel. I now have a love of the land that goes deeper than just being in awe of a beautiful sight. The land is something spiritual and a way of connection for me, and I was able to feel God’s presence so strongly through it. I have a new love of humanity because it was presented to me in its most raw, beautiful, and incredible forms in the people that I met and the actions that I saw done out of total selflessness for our fellow pilgrims. I love God in a new way, with a wider approach and with new things to be thankful and love Him for.
And, finally, I fell in love with a friend. Not in the head-over-heels romantic way, but for the person he was, the true person that I had the opportunity to walk with for so many days. I found a great friend and had a connection with him, and really appreciated this person not for just what he did, but for why and who he truly is. I was lucky enough to find such a friendship because of the gift of the Camino, in which every single day you have no choice but to be yourself; to face the world only with what was on your back and in your heart, allowing you to find out who people really are inside. For all of this I thank you so much, Camino. I hope to return to you again in the future and eagerly await more of your endless wisdom, blessings, and love.
To the pilgrim friends I met along the way who are across the globe and to the ones I am able to still see from CNU:
You guys are the best. The journey would not have been the same if even one of you weren’t there to share your unique gifts and personalities. There are countless memories I could name and things I could say, but I will just thank you for the gift of being yourself and your friendship which you so kindly and openly shared with the world. Thank you for shaping my journey and for allowing me to be a part of yours, for the laughs and struggles, and the good and bad times alike in which you were always there. Special thanks to Kip Reddick for bringing us all together and for his endless supply of good stories and wisdom. I have such a love and respect for you all. Thank you for everything and for being a big inspiration for the words I have written here and for the way I live my life.
Gracias a mi familia del Camino por todas las experiencias que me da y por el invaluable regalo de tu amistad. Me ensenaste mucho, y mi travesía no este lo mismo sin tu. Ojala que puedo verte en el futuro y que la vida tiene muchas bendiciones para ti. Te amo con todo mi corazón y pienso de ti frecuentemente.
Con mucho amor, tu amiga peregrina,
Malia