Four Things I learned on the Camino

28 days is not long, yet it is long enough to shift my perspective about myself and the world. There were so many ideas being inspired by walking on the road and the conversations with other pilgrims all over the world.

1. Saying Goodbye with Joy

More than 200,000 pilgrims walk the camino every year.

It is the first thing I learned on the road. On the road, we are constantly meeting people every day. We say hello and say goodbye, without knowing when we will see each other again. Maybe we only meet once, or there will be many more. Thus I learned how to treat every meeting as the last time and say goodbye as we will never meet again.

When we say goodbye, we will wish each other good luck on the road, and I can always sense the sincerity from their eyes every time. It is the fact that we don’t have the expectation to meet makes the biggest surprise each time we see each other again.

2. Walking in Your Own Pace

My travel partner and I decided to walk separately after the first week because I walked much slower than her. I wanted to take pictures, and for me enjoy being on the road is much more important than arrive the albergue and getting rest. During the first week, both of us seemed to be in a rush every day, trying to get to the albergue as soon as possible. (Because the municipal one doesn’t allow reservation.) At the end, we barely sat down to rest and it ruined the mood to enjoy the scenery. Therefore, when I finally walked on my own I tried to slow down my pace. It didn’t work out quite well at first, but on the 3rd week when I started to make reservations for albergues things started getting different. On the road, I could enjoy more. Slowing down enabled me to really feel what the earth has to offer me, and that’s when a lot of realizations started to flush in.

After all, this is not a race. Everyone has their own enjoyable speed, there is no need to rush, and you can’t rush because you have to walk more than 5 hours everyday!

3. Leaving What You Don’t Need

People often packed too many stuff into their bags. Therefore some albergues would set up a donation area for the pilgrims.

Another thing I realized on the road is to learn how to leave things I don’t need. There’s one time I bought too much food in the supermarket, I thought I was very hungry and I needed a lot of food. The outcome was that I couldn’t finish it, so I had to put a tomato, a cup of yogurt and a sandwich in my backpack. That turned out to be a mistake and caused pain to my shoulder and back the whole day. To know the limitation of our appetite and only assume the amount we need is what I learnt on the road. Sometimes what we think we need is way more than we actually do.

4. Giving Is More Blessed than Receiving

On the camino you can see this kind of donation stand full of snacks, fruit and drink. Sometimes it became the best first aid to my empty stomach.

In the first week there’s one day my travel partner and I bought too much cheese, so we decided to give the rest to a solo pilgrim. At that time I thought it’s a pity that I couldn’t finish the food I spent my money on and I was a bit reluctant to share. While as the journey continued I started to receive food and help as well. At first, I felt flattered and overwhelmed, then I realized it’s what people do on the camino: always sharing and helping others in need. Walking on the camino can be tough, and no one can understand it more than people who are going through the same journey as you. Even if you walk alone, you will never be lonely on the road.