If you have not heard the story before, I first heard of the Camino last August. I was managing a swim club and had a rainout, so I came home and clicked on a movie that had been sitting in my watch list for two years. 

The job was particularly stressful last year, and I knew I needed to take this summer off for my own sanity. The whole concept of the Camino interested me for a number of reasons. The historical and cultural components were big, but it seemed like a feasible physical challenge for me as well.

In no particular order, here are a few other takeaways from the trip so far

When friends and co-workers heard about this trip, a number of people said I should do something to let others follow from home. I went ahead with the blog because I know I need to open up a little more. I keep my thoughts to myself a lot, and I thought this would be better for me than a private journal.

As a teacher, there is more of a balancing act because you don’t want to give students or parents ammunition against you. Still, I also believe there is some value in teachers modeling good uses of social media. I may have shared more than I should on a couple occasions, but overall I feel better for sharing the day to day experience.

I met a number of great people, but still feel I should have been more social. In the end, I went back into the race mentality that I struggled with the first week, and I outpaced a number of people along the way. I don’t regret pushing it because I would have felt like I missed something if I didn’t walk to Finisterre, but there were no long term connections coming from this Camino. So I hope to do better in that regard when I get to Andalusia.

My students have probably noticed by now that what I learn while traveling means a lot more to me than what I read. There have been all sorts of questions in class that I connected back to a Hurricane Katrina relief trip, a visit in Westminster Palace, or a cotton trader I met in Memphis. I definitely picked up some things that will reappear in class one way or another.

I also prefer to use my own photos in PowerPoints whenever possible. I have not taken as many photos as I expected, I still have about 1100 so far. I didn’t take many while walking, but I’ll probably take a lot more photos in the south.

One of the more common questions I got beforehand was, “Are you doing this to lose weight?”

This was never a dominant reason I was taking the trip, but I also knew the trip wouldn’t hurt in either regard. I have not weighed myself, but I know I dropped a decent amount from the Camino. The clothes I brought feel looser, and I bought a shirt a size smaller yesterday.

While I’m happy about that, I also know that the easy part is behind me. I’m not saying walking across Spain was easy, but keeping weight off is always tougher than losing weight. The new challenge is making the lifestyle changes when I get home. There are no easy choices though. Sure, I know change my diet and exercise more, but I need to make time to cook and workout. (I probably need to go to bed earlier too.) That means cutting back on the extra-curriculars at school, and I’m not good at saying no. Still, I need to make changes when I get home.

There are a some big decisions for me in the coming year or two, and I wanted to find some time to think about my options over the summer. For example, I’ve thought about moving to a different neighborhood, but that’s led to more questions than answers. The excitement of the trip kept me from thinking to much about life back home, but I did make some progress. Maybe a little more time on the beach in Malaga will help.