The Camino Way

Introduction

“Halfway along our journey to life’s endI found myself astray in a dark wood,Since the right way was nowhere to be found.”

—OPENING LINE OF DANTE’S INFERNO

I PEDALED ONE LAST TIME AND COASTED AS LONG AS I COULD. WHEN I stopped, I was staring across the Danube River at the stunning Hungarian Parliament building. After a month, my “bucket list” bicycle trip across the heart of Europe was over. I felt exhausted. I felt closure. I also felt that something was missing.

My childhood-self had set two goals for my life—to be president and to see the world. The failure to see the overlap between the two belied my naïveté. Somewhere between childhood in the Midwest and college in Washington, DC, I realized I was never going to be president. ...