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Hansle Goh

Hansle Goh and his grandfather backpack the Camino de Santiago.

Instead of enjoying his summer at the beach with his friends before his senior year of high school, Hansle Goh decided to embark on a trip to Camino De Santiago in Spain with no one except his grandfather.

Hansle was first inspired to go on this trip when he had traveled to Europe with his family to see the Santiago Cathedral. He mentioned that at first, “he had no idea what [it] was,” he thought it was just, “one of those European churches.” And as he continued to soak in his surroundings, “the first sight [he] saw was people sitting around the church, and then [he] noticed they all had these huge backpacks…some people were hugging, crying, dazing off,” and it got him to wonder: what it was all about?

He spent a year researching and planning with his mom after that. Discovering that the Catholic church they visited was the final stop of Camino De Santiago, a pilgrimage that has existed for over a 1,000 years. Mrs. Chun, Hansle’s mother, expressed her excitement, “but [she] worried about his health because back in May, he experienced his second seizure.” Like any parent, she was worried about his condition, but she eventually “talked to [her] husband and said [they] should let him challenge himself.” She didn’t want Hansle to cancel the trip because of the incident, and then going through life, “avoiding things because he doesn’t want to take risks,” that may endanger his health.

The trip was back on. Hansle continued planning, deciding to go with his grandfather, asking for donations to fund his trip, then organizing a fundraiser to give back to his church’s education ministry. Hansle wanted, “the kids to have a good time at church, to want to go every Sunday, to want to go to mass… [He] wanted the younger kids to be thankful… and [to] think about why they go to church.” For every kilometer he walked, people would pledge to donate a certain amount of money, and by the end of his 800 km walk, he managed to raise $960.

When his close friend of four years, Cameron Bickerstaff, heard about this trip, he revealed that he was, “happy for him because he’s experiencing the world and all its potential wonders.”

After a while traveling for some time, Hansle came to the realization that traveling with another person for 40 days can begin to take its toll. Although Hansle enjoyed his grandfather’s company, he faced an obstacle with “the age gap, the generation difference because that two-generation difference is so hard to balance,” when it came to making decisions. Everyday, making simple decisions such as: “where should they eat that day?” would become troublesome because of their difference in thinking.  His grandfather wanted to go to a restaurant based on price, but Hansle wanted to go to a restaurant because it was something different. In the end, they made it through.

Traveling in a different country means you’re bound to make some memories. In one hostel that Hansle and his grandfather stayed in, “there was a special meeting time to be able to sleep in that hostel…[they] all gathered, the people who were going to sleep there, more than 30 people…and they all just sat in a circle and one of the nuns had a guitar… [they] all started singing no matter where [they] were from,” and what he enjoyed about it all was that they, “all tried to sing along and have a good time.” For him, it built a sense of community with strangers who had the same end goal.

After 40 days, Hansle and his grandfather arrived at their destination: Santiago de Compostela.