Hi,
Thank you again for your ideas, here is my finished product. Please understand it wasn't a speech focusing on the Camino as I had a certain marking criteria to follow.
Relationships are crucial for development and have been proven to contribute to long, healthy, happy lives. The University of Minnesota compares the health risks from being alone or isolated to the risks associated with health issues such as: cigarette smoking, blood pressure, and obesity. Therefore, the significance of building connections must not be overlooked.
When you picture a relationship what do you see? Is it intimacy between two people? A family growing closer? A group of friends interacting? A relationship is not only a connection between family and friends but is characterised by connecting with people regardless of association.
The
Camino de Santiago or the Way of Saint James is a pilgrimage walking through Saint Jean Pied de Port in France, across northern Spain to reach Santiago de Compostela. Last year my family and I were lucky enough to do the pilgrimage. This took a little less than two months and overall we walked approximately 780km.
This trip was one of the most amazing things I have ever done and the aspect of being able to form relationships with people from all around the world made it even better. But what is it about these types of environments that makes it possible for people to build connections with each other?
Empathy- the ability to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes- enables connections with others to become a sense of mutual understanding. It is found that being able to relate your
own experiences to another’s gives you a greater sense of appreciation for
their experiences. Walking in each other’s shoes gives us insight as to how each individual is feeling because we can relate to their progressing journey. This was particularly effective during my pilgrimage because when interacting with the other pilgrims, I was able to relate to how they were feeling. We can comprehend that those we’re meeting are very likely tired, sore, happy or elated, and not only within environments such as pilgrimages we can bring this into practice in the outside world. Being freed of the multitude of the stresses of everyday life allows us to open up to others.
One of the best things about going on the pilgrimage was the opportunity to meet people on “open ground”. This meant that no one was stereotyped based on their social status, ethnicity or religion – we were all treated as equals. Each individual was considered a simple pilgrim, just walking to reach our destinations. We didn’t necessarily endure the same experiences as each other but we did have similar journeys. My favourite interpretation of the symbol of the walk is that each line of the shell represents the path of a pilgrim, and no matter our differences, our paths will eventually meet and we will all hopefully reach our shared destinations. This indicates that despite our many differences we can push past the stereotypes to form connections and develop relationships with people coming from all different parts of the world
A ‘right’ relationship occurs when in any environment under any circumstance you can interact with another and cooperate. A right relationship doesn’t base people off their social status, religion or ethnicity. What makes a relationship work is having two people able to interact comfortably with each other despite their differences.
People of the younger generation must develop empathy towards others in order to sustain relationships and whilst the complexity of our lives can overwhelm the ability to form connections, we must work for our relationships to function. Whether the relationship is one based off family, friends, loved ones or even strangers, all people living in today’s society should endeavour to build connections.
