What's Next?

While this post is not strictly about the Camino, I feel that it is vital to state that walking the Camino is not THE journey but a part of the journey called life (deep and cheesy I know, but true). Within the past week alone  there have been several “lasts”, enough to make a girl who doesn't often cry to put her lacrimal glands to the real test. Last days of sitting in classes as an undergrad, last finals as an undergrad, last time seeing and laughing with friends and acquaintances that have surrounded me for the past 4 years, last time spending late nights studying on campus, or goofy shenanigans with my roommates when we should have been studying, to name a few.  Writing this post I find myself sitting in my empty apartment hours after my roommates have moved out their things, and much of my own things either already gone or in boxes. Yet I am surrounded by reminders of the life I am moving on from. The silence amplifying the echos of these memories so that they may be more audible. There are no random giggles coming from either of the twins while they watch their shows, or sneaking around in order to scare or prank one another, or games being made up and played in the attempts to gain house points. But hey, at least the WiFi is working!

Amidst mourning and savoring all of the lasts and echos I am often faced with the question of “What's next?” I normally resort in saying, “Camino de Santiago, a 500 mile pilgrimage in Spain” (raise your hand if you've heard that answer from me. You are not alone) because that is what is “next”. But deep down each time I hear it and give that response I know what is really meant by that question, “What are you planning on doing with your life?” I. DON’T. KNOW. My options are many, and therefore overwhelming. Chances are I am going to leave the state within the year in order to pursue “what’s next”  but whatever it is I am unaware, only that it will be my next chapter. Chapter may not even be the right word. It will most likely be the next novel. The first in the series being my school age years (SPOILER ALERT: It ends with my graduating from college). The prologue for Volume 2 (title in process) being Camino, and the rest will write itself. To keep with the book metaphor, I feel like my life right now is equivalent to a book hangover. You just finished Vol. 1 with copious amounts of twists, turns, ups, and downs, and let's not forget about that phenomenal ending. You're not quite ready to move onto the next book because you are still savoring the dirty details of the last  one but you remind yourself that Vol. 2 will have the same author and same general characters that you love, along with the potential for new characters and stories that you will grow to love and never know how you had lived without them before.

So cheers to the closing of one book and the opening of the next, may it bring much happiness and adventure!