Joeybury tales

For years and years I have been told to find myself. And as I sat there in class I thought how I had spent my whole life so far doing so many different things from sports to clubs you name it. I did so many different things. But I still can’t answer the question “Who is Joey Buelow?” The summer going into senior year in high school, I went on a trip. I went to Spain and France and England. And this trip changed me. “Travel is more than the seeing of sights, it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent in the ideas of living.” This quote bounced around my head as I sat in class and I  thought about a movie I saw about the camino de santiago de compostela where a man walks across Spain on a Journey designed to help you find yourself. It’s used to be part of an ancient pilgrimage to a cathedral and now many people even non-religious like myself, take the pilgrimage to find themselves. And as class continued even though I wasn’t paying attention, I heard my professor say “the point of this assignment is to find yourself…” and even though I hadn’t heard the rest of the assignment I knew what I had to do so I got up and left. When I got to the door the professor called out “where are you going!?” and I instantly replied “To find myself,” and walked out the door to call my friend Jacob. 

While I waited for him to arrive I sat there thinking I was crazy. Walk across Spain?  Who does that!? Jacob arrived and I told him how I felt that I needed to just get away from everything I knew and plunge into the unknown and just go on an adventure and figure everything out. He sat there for a while, taking it all in before finally looking up and asking “You want me to go with you?” It amazed me that he was willing to give up everything to do this with me but I knew this was something I needed to do alone.

That night I packed up everything I would need to go backpacking across a country: warm jacket, tent, some emergency food, sleeping bag, spare clothes, toothbrush, etc…  I caught the next flight to Barcelona. From there I took a bus up north to Somport where I would start my journey. For the next month I spent every day walking miles and miles, going from village to village staying at hostels meeting new people including other people walking the camino, and I had so much time to myself, thinking and seeing new things and simply getting away from my life.

When I finally arrived at the cathedral I didn’t know what to do. I still didn’t know who I was. I sat down and listened to mass. I didn’t know what the preacher was saying but it didn’t matter because I wasn’t listening. I felt like I had failed. I walked all those miles for nothing. Feeling disgusted with myself, I stood up and left the church. The sun was setting and as I sat on the cathedral steps and watched the magnificent colors disappears beyond the horizon; I realized I had never felt more alive. I had just walked across Spain on an impulse, by myself. And I realized I could answer the question “who is Joey Buelow?”

I am Joey Buelow