Not all who lose pencils are always lost- Catlynh Phan

 Lost Pencils and Labyrinths: Catlynh Phan 11/13

    Christiana Soumakis was a guest speaker that Dr. Redick invited into the class today. She is a special education teacher in Long Island, New York. She walked the Camino de Santiago three times, a journey she thought was impossible as someone with ADD. She found that the Camino was not a maze, where its purpose is to make you lost, but a labyrinth, where there is only one path to get you to the center. 
    Growing up she lost pencils all the time, everyday. Her teachers and classmates often got frustrated at her and she felt that she could never be as capable as a "normal person." The Camino was her proving to herself that she could do it.
    Hardship was not far and few in between for her on the journey. On the first night she struggled to make it out of town and felt a sense of despair that she could not do it. She slowed down, and took out her guidebook and found her way out. She quickly discovered how much she could do on her own and giving her all to everything. But the hardships never stopped. She just found that there was a way out and found new ways of not giving up. She found new pencils all while losing some along the way to the center of the labyrinth.

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