There were riots on the news.
Given the recent political turmoil on 2017 this was nothing new. What was surprising to me was that the riots were at Evergreen, a 20 minute drive from my house. Never mind what they were about, they looked intense and a bit uncomfortable. I had been looking to go back to school and what better place than somewhere uncomfortable?
I began attending Evergreen that fall studying Asian-American pop culture. Writing became my focus as I struggled with it much more than reading the texts and talking in peer groups. After Fall quarter I was set on taking a program that focused exclusively on writing. At least until a bigger challenge appeared.
I had never heard of El Camino and I was not interested in traveling to Spain. Through a scheduling fluke I ended up in the last program I expected to be in – Walking to Santiago de Compostela, a pilgrimage across the country of Spain.
I learned and wrote about discomfort while walking through the mountains, hills, forests, and beaches of Spain. I had to learn Spanish to survive, I had to make new friends, I had to live in a strange country carrying all my belongings on my back. Constantly on the move, I learned that almost any problem could be solved if I just kept walking. I started my journey in France and when I arrived on the West coast of Spain I knew a thing or two about discomfort and I had the blisters to prove it.