Pain, Lots and Lots of Pain, and Looking Back

My first morning of the Camino I was asked by one of the toughest people I have ever met, with all the sincerity in the world: “Are you ready for blisters that will make you cry?” He wasn’t kidding.

While I have not shed a tear (in pain) on this walk, I have cursed, winced, hobbled, and limped my way through the past few days of the Camino. I have also sworn off all forms of hiking for at least a month after I am finished. Essentially, my blisters built up to the point where a lot of ibuprofen and bandages (and some magical European patches called Compeed) were required in order to preserve any shred of evidence I possess feet. Understand: hiking 16-18 miles in a day, while difficult, can be done by pretty much anyone–hiking this much every day for 14-34 consecutive days is another matter entirely. Arriving at the final destination point at the end of our day is a huge relief…but it is also when the strain of walking so much comes down hard on everyone.

Pain. So much pain.

And no, I haven’t finished my walk yet. There are roughly three more days until Santiago de Compostela, perhaps more if I decide to walk all the way to the coast. Previous paragraphs aside, my blisters (8, at last count) are healing up and this enormously different lifestyle is becoming more and more normal as the days go on. I have developed friendships and friendly walking acquaintances and an uneven tan that will probably take years to correct, and through all this I have been so, so happy.

Part of what has made this such a great journey lies in the ability to turn around and see how far you have come. Our progress (I often walk with a group) can now be traced over entire mountain ranges or long stretches of Spanish plateau, fields of wheat and cows and pigs and villages…it has been incredible to see how far we have come. As has often been a joke on the Camino, it’s a metaphor! This walk is full of ’em. Walking close to 200 miles had unsurprisingly allowed me to give some serious reflection on where life has led me over the past few years.

Have I gone very far in life? Heck no. I have seen like, half a percent of the world and currently have no job other than finding my next meal and writing about it. Every new place I visit reminds me of how little I know and how young I still am, despite my often pretending to be exactly the opposite. Along with this humbling thought, the past few years have brought me a great deal of joy and learning, along with some pain. This, I have been told, is completely normal.

College feels so far from where I currently stand, it might as well be the distant speck of a town I left on my first day of walking. Rarely does the path we walk to Santiago allow much of a glimpse as to what lies in front of us (metaphor alert!); with so much ahead in life still unknown to me, this walk has been a lesson in patience and persistence. I’m guessing it would be wise to keep hold of those things when I come home.