Pauline, on the road to life and to Compostela

It's funny, through the question of the dream or the meaning to give to his life, I see the young "Pauline child", who wanted to have good grades, to be one of the "best students" in the class. Through your question, I also see the "Pauline young adult" who wanted to earn more and more money and climb the ladder of the hierarchy, with this strong desire to exist and to be loved. For a long time, I gave the school my power to teachers and teachers, my parents, my bosses, friends, doctors or therapists ... I believed that other people knew better than me what to do with my life. I listened to their advice, I submitted to their word. Deep down, I wanted someone to decide for me. It is so much more reassuring that we are told what to do. Then I realized that none of the people I had given my power to really had answers. None of these people knew what was good for me better than I did. They had ideas based on their own filters of reality, their own fears, their past experiences. Finally, they were like me, students of Life, to try, to fall, to make mistakes and to get up again. The people who have guided me the most have been inspiring to me especially by their way of being and not by their advice. When I figured it out, it was a great relief: if no one really “knows”, if no one has universal answers, then I can be the captain of my own ship. So I can experience Life as I see fit. So I can finally listen to myself. Perhaps this is true freedom? "

At the dawn of her 30th birthday, Pauline listened to her little voice and decided to leave her stressful Parisian life. In 2017, she began to walk alone with her backpack for only home, in the direction of Compostela, symbolically leaving Strasbourg, the city where she was born and where she grew up. During her 4 months of walking through France and Spain, she covered around 2,000 km on foot.

During our discussion, Pauline explains to me why she left on the road to Saint-Jacques: “when I left my job to go for a walk, I was told that I was going to lose quarters for retirement. I replied that I was just going “on retirement”. ⁣In the word "retirement", there is "withdrawal", it is the fact of withdrawing from the world, from our sometimes routine and oppressive daily life. I am convinced that these regular withdrawals are necessary, to live better in the world, to come back to it later with a much clearer mind. By interviewing pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago for my film, I could see that there were many of us who had this need to withdraw. The Way offers us a bubble sheltered from the world which often goes too fast. ⁣I like the idea of giving myself time to “retreat” regularly to carry out projects, experiences or long-term trips, rather than waiting until my old age to be able to really retire. I travel, not to run away from myself but to meet myself more deeply. When I change horizons, I don't see life the same way, I am more inspired for writing and I also breathe differently. Other facets of me are revealed and I want to go and discover them. By setting out on the road to Saint-Jacques, I needed to live from day to day, to be in nature and to find myself in this simplicity. I wanted to discover myself a little more and feel more free. I decided to take the first step on this path and let myself be carried away by what it will make me discover and experience. I didn't yet know where he would take me, but I wanted to let go and let go of my tendency to want to plan and control everything, to leave more room for the unknown, following my lucky star. I no longer want to run away from my desires, run away from myself through “must” and “must”, by accepting a situation that does not fully develop me, without trying to experience something else that attracts me and call me. "