Anything is Possible

Posted by Maggie Neuman on

Written by: Maggie Neuman

Major: Business

Location: Burgos, Spain

This weekend I did something I never expected myself to do. I completed two days of the “Camino de Santiago” which is a path that pilgrims took during the 12th century and onward towards the shrine of Saint James. Completing the Spain route of the Camino takes roughly one month depending on how far one walks each day which is expected to be between 25 and 55 km. During our two days of walking as a group, we walked roughly 50 km. This distance was certainly doable, but it was challenging during the process. My personal will was especially tested when we walked up a mountain for about a mile where every time you turned a corner you expected the path to flatten and for the longest time it just kept going up. I haven’t personally been challenged in a way like this in a while and it taught me quite a bit.

Because we completed our portion of the Camino as a group, there was the option to either socialize with others or walk ahead a bit and walk in ‘solitude’. As an introvert my preferred method of walking was in solitude as walking in beautiful nature is the perfect opportunity for some deep, introspective thinking. Unexpectedly, during this thinking and walking I felt overwhelmingly strong. As I pushed myself past what I previously considered possible based on my physical abilities, I felt unstoppable. If I could walk 22 km on the first day, then nothing is impossible. These thoughts also led me to reflect on what I and the other students who study abroad have accomplished by doing so. We literally picked up our lives and moved to another country where we don’t entirely speak the language (I am studying Spanish here in Spain so I am able to communicate with others here but it is still a challenge adapting to the speed and accents of native speakers). That’s an amazing thing! Many people consider that impossible to accomplish but after doing so, the realm of what is possible to accomplish in life seems much wider. After completing part of the Camino, I feel even more so that I can do anything in life if I decide to.

When studying abroad, part of the expectation is that you will travel to other nearby places. Thus far, I have gone to Santander, San Sebastian, and Bilbao which are all cities fairly close to Burgos, where I am living, in Spain. However, I have completed all of these trips with the friends I have made in my group who traveled here as well. The next step which I find a bit terrifying is to travel to a new place alone. There are places that I want to go that other people don’t so to accomplish that I will need to go on my own. There are pros and cons to travelling alone. The obvious pro is that you get to do exactly what you want without having to take anyone else’s opinions into consideration. The cons are that you have to be more independent and if something goes wrong, there is no one but you to figure out what to do. Though I find the concept of travelling alone frightening, I am choosing to take this new sense of confidence I gained from my experience during the Camino and remember that anything is possible, including travelling to new countries alone. I will be booking these solo trips very soon and will post an update on my experience after I have completed them.

During the Camino, it was also very interesting to observe the other people in my group because during very intense situations such as this, people’s true personalities come out more so than usual. Many people were very frustrated that we had to do this very short portion of the Camino at all because it was too hard. Based on my very uneducated observations, I think that these feelings are due to people putting themselves in boxes. Because they had never expected to do something like this and had never done anything like it before, it was outside of the box, the comfort zone if you will that they had created for themselves. I didn’t ever see myself doing anything like this either, when I envisioned my trip to Spain, I saw exploring big cities not walking through the Spanish countryside. However, just because something is outside the box of what you would normally do doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth doing. Just because something is hard doesn’t mean that it’s not worth doing either. How else are you going to get that amazing feeling of unstoppable-ness if not by doing something challenging?

I have observed behavior like this from people throughout the entire trip, that is people choosing not to do things (or even try them) if they are different than what they normally do (my intent is not to make judgments by saying this but share what I have learned and make recommendations based on my experiences thus far). I understand that it’s important to stay true to who you are but when going somewhere that has an entirely different culture (which is bound to happen when studying abroad) I think it is worth at least trying things that are outside of your normal behavior just to have the experience. It’s not worth having rules set for yourself to stay comfortable that ultimately inhibit you from having the whole experience in the place you are. For example, I don’t generally consider myself a very social person but when someone asked me if I wanted to go out and talk to other international students who I didn’t know, I said yes because it seemed like a good experience to have. It ended up being very fun and I’m so glad I did it! Overall when studying abroad, I don’t recommend saying no to things just because they are unfamiliar, most things are worth trying at least once.

Though I am currently very tired with very sore feet, I am so happy that I got to participate in this small part of the Camino de Santiago. It was a great challenge that gave me a newfound sense of confidence that I needed to continue making the most of this trip. To the rest of you who are studying abroad right now or intend to in the future, get rid of your comfort zones, you won’t need them wherever you are going!

Categories: Adventures, Spain, Field Trips, Business Broncos