From a Tuesday Interview to the Camino

It begins with an interview on Tuesday. The speaker is excited, but there is no job offer yet. The salary requirement is $150,000 a year—$12,500 a month when divided by twelve. That is a gross figure, not a promise of what would reach a bank account after withholding. Still, the speaker has already started imagining what that income could make possible.

First comes a promise to be diligent: pay a tithe, pay off the car, then pay off the pool. The hoped-for deadline is eighteen months. Each debt cleared would leave a little more room in the monthly budget. It is a sequence, not a calculation the speaker can settle before knowing whether the job comes through—or what the pay and expenses would actually be.

After the debts, the destination changes. Money would go into the bank for Paris, a trip through Europe with Mama and Sissy, and the speaker’s own Camino. The imagined savings grow to more than $100,000. Then comes an even bolder idea: four months away from work, with three months for the Camino and one for family travel. Katie might join them for a week or ten days. The Pilgrim’s Reception Office in Santiago de Compostela welcomes people who complete the pilgrimage on foot, by bicycle or on horseback. For this speaker, reaching it is still a hope.

How could four months away fit with a full-time job? The speaker would ask for the time off, even without pay, and would like to return afterward. If an employer could not agree, resignation is a possibility the speaker says they would face. Personal leave is generally a matter of agreement between employer and employee; the imagined sabbatical is not something the speaker has secured.

Behind that plan is a much longer working life. The speaker recalls a first job paying taxes: bag boy, November 1975, at $2.10 an hour. Now the hope is to work another two or three years, reach about seventy, and, as an old boss put it, “hang my spurs up.” Not entirely. A short project here or there would still be welcome, because the speaker loves the work.

For now, all of this rests on Tuesday’s interview. The speaker does not describe the future as settled. Faith runs through the conversation: a willingness to make plans, work toward them, and leave room for what happens next. The car, the pool, Paris, the Camino, time with family—each belongs to a future the speaker is eager to try to build.