NICK HOEKSTRA
El Camino de Santiago
By Annie Hesp
The first time I met Nick Hoekstra was at an information meeting at the University of Michigan for students interested in hiking the Camino de Santiago in May of 2004. We would be walking each day, living communally with other pilgrims from all over the world and researching the multiple levels and meaning of community that exist on the Camino. Admittedly, I hadn’t imagined that a blind student would want to join us on this 200-mile pilgrimage across northern Spain.
However, after talking to Nick for about ten minutes following the meeting, I became enchanted by his wit and maturity. When he told me that he had already lived with a family in Logroño, Spain for two weeks when he was in high school, I had no doubt that he would be an integral member of our group. I did, however, have reservations: How would he get around the albergues (communal hostels for pilgrims)? How would he navigate the trickier parts of the Camino when the trail narrowed and turned into a mess of slippery rocks and mud? But, after a reassuring talk with Nick a couple of months before we left, I realized that he knew his limits better than anyone. Any fears I had about his ability to keep up on some of the more difficult terrain were quickly dispelled once we started walking. After the first few days, he was usually at the front of the pack, keeping a pace that was at times challenging to match. Perhaps his years of aikido training account for his fitness and acute sense of balance. By the end of our 15-day hike, he was one of the few students in our group who hadn’t suffered from severe blisters or physical fatigue.
One night in the albergue in Sarria, Nick talked to me and some other students about how he doesn’t participate in organized activism in regard to his blindness, but rather he speaks to people on an individual level. At the time this didn’t make much sense to me, but over the course of the trip, I began to understand.
On the first night when I returned to the albergue after going to the store, I found Nick chatting with Chavi, a Spaniard who was traveling the Camino on bike. The two were talking about music and the different regional languages spoken around Spain. For the rest of the trip, I would find Nick in these kinds of 
situations, striking up conversations with strangers whose only connection was that they were all walking the Camino together.
On another night, I remember getting up to use the restroom after most people had gone to sleep. I found Nick, along with some other students, talking with Machi, a doctor from Chile who was walking the Camino barefoot. From that night on, Machi and Nick would talk at night when they met up at the albergues or when they ran across one another as we hiked along the trail.
Over the weeks, I often saw Nick alone with other pilgrims or albergue volunteers chatting, mostly in Spanish. Eventually, I began to realize what Nick meant by working on an individual level. As people got to know him, they would see that he functioned amazingly well, even in such an unfamiliar environment. The more you got to know Nick, the more you forgot that he couldn’t see.
Nick’s influence extended beyond our group and the friends he made along the way. I remember one day when we checked in at an albergue, we were told that because we were a large group, we would have to sleep on the floor. However, the woman running the albergue told us that she would accommodate Nick in a bed. Her comment really made my blood boil. I enjoyed telling her that Nick was actually one of the fittest in our group and that he was just about the least likely to need a bed that night. Nick chimed in, explaining that there were a few sick students in our group who needed the bed. She might have been taken aback by our brusqueness, but at the same time I was offended by her assumptions.
As we made our way closer to Santiago de Compostela, our final destination, more people had heard about Nick. At times they welcomed him with open arms and sometimes with very physical contact. Once, a man came up to Nick and forcefully put both hands on his chest. If you can’t see, it must be disquieting to be touched without warning by total strangers. Nonetheless, Nick responded to this man with grace and politeness. This response is indicative of the remarkable character and attitude that Nick demonstrates throughout his life, regardless of the situation and in spite of his blindness. AV
Nick Hoekstra is a junior at the University of Michigan, majoring in psychology and philosophy. When not studying, he can be found in the gym practicing aikido.
Annie Hesp is a Ph.D. student in romance languages at the University of Michigan. Her research interests are contemporary diaries of the Camino de Santiago. She also teaches a class about the Camino.