English professor Jeanne Muzzilo recounted her journey along the Camino de Santiago, a famous pilgrimage trail in Spain.
Muzzilo said she started in Paris, France and then walked over 840 kilometers to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. The journey took 36 days to complete.
“The trail is hundreds and hundreds of years old and has been traveled by thousands of pilgrims,” Muzzilo said. “You really feel like you’re walking through history.”
Muzzilo said the pilgrimage was a powerfully important experience for her.
“I tested my limits, I felt history, and I found inner peace by removing the noise and distractions of nonessentials,” she said. “People ask me why I did it, but they don’t understand. Like deciding to have children or going to grad school, not walking was not an option.”
Muzzilo said pilgrimages are very personal.
“People do this for a lot of different reasons,” Muzzilo said. “Some people believe that if you walk during certain holy years, you gain favors with God and go straight to Heaven. The idea is that suffering- and these pilgrimages involve a lot of suffering- redeemed you.”
Pilgrims undergo a lot of physical strain and suffering during their journey.
“I got blisters, shin splints and I lost my little pinkie toe nail,” Muzzilo said. “Luckily, the ibuprofen in Spain is twice as potent as the stuff over here.”
Muzzilo said the difficulties did not end with the pilgrimage and that she had some trouble transitioning back to normal life.
“I was flabbergasted when I got into a car again after a month of no driving,” Muzzilo said. “It was so fast and dangerous, like an out-of-control video game. I kept flinching and twitching the whole ride.”
Cars weren’t the only thing Muzzilo needed to readjust to.
“In Spain, I could only really understand about 20 percent of what was being said, but I learned how to communicate in other ways,” Muzzilo said. “The only problem was that when I returned to America, I discovered I had forgotten how to block out all the insane overheard talk. I just wanted to tell people to shut up.”
Muzzilo’s journey left an impression on her audience.
“I found her presentation pretty inspiring,” sophomore community wellness major Dakota Zamora said. “It gave me itchy feet. I’m excited to go on my own pilgrimage and see new countries and people.”
Not all attendees were as inspired, however.
“The pilgrimage looked beautiful and impressive, but I think I’ll limit my adventures to my walk home,” English professor Timothy Conley said.
