Stage 17 – the day I got a fake diploma

Start: 6:10, 7 ºC, cold and windy

End: 11:40

Distance: 21/397.9 Km

Stayed at: Domus Viatoris

OST: Centro di gravita’ permanente

Another sub-25 Km day. At this point, I felt confident enough to call 21 Km a “rest day”.

Ankle and feet had healed, and without the silicon soles I had picked up the pace.

While having breakfast, a not-so-random event spurred deeper self reflection.

I had been experiencing “spontaneous reflective time” more or less every morning, in the golden hours between 6:00 and 8:00, when encounters with other pilgrims are rare and there’s plenty of room for focus and introspection.

While those reflections had been spontaneous, they were also much shallower than anything that followed.

In the middle of the Meseta, I had some anti-epiphany.

I asked myself: what does it mean to be ME? If I had to objectively define who I am, from different perspectives, in different situations, what would I be able to say?

The Camino de Santiago was a life-improving experience for me. For the first time in my life, I met myself – my true, naked self.

This was not a sudden encounter, but a discovery: layer after layer, I peeled the self’s onion to finally meet myself, my naked self.

And this discovery started here, on the way to Sahagun.

As a nice coincidence, Sahagun includes a landmark for the mid-point of the Camino Frances: if you really want to, you can go get a “mid-point compostela”, an official piece of paper reminding you that you are FAR from being done.

But it’s something I guess?

Next stage: Stage 18: Sahagun – Reliegos