First Blog Post: Camino de Kamee

Getting lost in the rice terraces in the mountains of Sapa, Vietnam.

Camino de Santiago Kamee

I’ve never considered myself much of a strong writer, yet here I find myself writing my first blog post. Ever. (!)

For my fellow bloggers out there, you probably remember the pressure and struggle of choosing a topic to write about for your first blog post, which I also experienced. After much deliberation, I thought why not write about how we arrived to name the blog “Cam Kam.”  Yes, I said we.  “We” as in me and my lovely and creative friend, Coralys (but really mostly Coralys), who conjured this clever (or at least what I think is clever) title.

Cam Kam is short for Camino de Kamee.  That may sound familiar because you’ve probably heard of the Camino de Santiago or one of the many other famous caminos all around the world. In English, Camino de Santiago translates to Way of Saint James. In Spanish, the word camino means path or journey. In this case, this is the Journey of Kamee.

I wasn’t really sure of which direction to head in making this site since I essentially wanted to create a space for me to combine my passions in one place. And if you know me, you know that I tend to pursue a diverse multitude of interests. So, I decided to zero in on a few—my love for travel, photography, art, and Jesus (but we’ll get to that in a second)! I would say that I probably caught the travel bug after my sophomore year of college after studying in China and traveling to the Philippines. That following summer, a six week backpacking trip through Europe made me invest more into photography and also fueled my love for traveling. As for art, I’ve always drawn since I was little and have loved using my hands to create just about anything. It’s been a source of self-expression. Painting, drawing, pottery, crafts… I love all of it. But to my last point:

God.

“I’m Catholic.” <— A phrase you never would have heard me proudly declaring in all of my existence… at least up until sometime during my sophomore year of college. The whole story is detail filled and long, but here’s a quick run down:

I essentially grew up as a cradle Catholic, someone raised in the faith since birth. In the Philippines, almost everyone is Catholic, and I basically inherited the faith and did “what I was supposed to do.” I went to Mass every Sunday (not always willingly), said grace before meals, and crossed off what I needed to do on my ‘checklist’. At some point in high school, I began to question everything, stopped going to Mass, blamed God for all of my problems, and eventually started exploring other religions.

Then, college happened. And everything that you basically would have expected to happen in college… didn’t happen. The last place that I thought I would encounter God was on a college campus, yet I found myself being invited to go to Mass during the first month of school and eventually getting Confirmed by the end of the year. But, that’s only the beginning of the story… and the rest sort of looks like an exponential curve.

Now, back to “Cam Kam”.

Thousands of people take on the Camino de Santiago each year. Pilgrims and non-pilgrims alike start from various points all across Europe and hike what can be over 1000+ miles of terrain, depending on where you start. But, the path ultimately leads to one place, the shrine of Saint James, the Apostle. Speaking from the experience of a friend who’s actually trekked the Camino, there are definitely some parts of the journey that are easier and some that are more difficult than others. These more challenging moments could be due to the incline of the terrain you’re walking on, the unexpected weather that you encounter, or moments of loneliness, hunger, and complete exhaustion. But, there are also those moments when you’re surrounded by fellow pilgrims that you meet along the way offering encouragement, a chat or two, or perhaps an item that you needed to help keep you going. Some of these pilgrims may be with you for a short leg of the trip and others may be folks who accompany you all the way to the end. Regardless of where they started or where you started, you are all journeying to the same place and chances are that you couldn’t have made it without them.

And so, I invite you to be a fellow pilgrim on my camino as I share my experiences with you—in my travels, through my lens, in my art, and in faith—as we amble on this camino called life.