"you are
To yourself
Have you ever treated someone like that?”

A man who devoted himself to his daily life in pursuit of his dream
Leaving Northern Europe after failure and frustration
In the comfort that nature gives
Find something more precious than the dream that was killing you

I can't let failure and frustration kill me anymore.
In Northern Europe, where I left with just that thought
I praised myself for being so great just by being alive.

Author Lee Hae-sol walked 500 km from Burgos to Santiago de Compostela on her first pilgrimage to Santiago just before she graduated from college, and on her second pilgrimage, which she embarked on without a plan after her father passed away and she quit her job, she walked 800 km from Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela.
But he was walking the path of daily life that was perhaps even more difficult than that process.
A dream tailored to the world's standards.
The process of finding that dream was a burden that had weighed on him all his life.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The pressure started from the compulsion to give the right answer to the question I was asked as a child.
And before he knew it, he had become a person who dreamed not of the dreams he wanted, but of the dreams the world wanted.

One day, while he was studying hard for the Certified Public Labor Attorney exam, and was about to take his third exam, he was eating lunch near the academy when a student jumped out in front of him.
The writer, who is in great shock, realizes that 'it was a dream that could kill me' and sets off for Northern Europe without a plan.

As a child, he was just a kid who loved writing and wanted to see glaciers and the Northern Lights.
Northern Europe, the place where the glaciers and the aurora are.
I thought that if it was there, I would be able to look back and reflect on my dreams and myself.
And there he finds something more precious than his dreams.
For those of us who live forgetting what is precious, his travelogue of Northern Europe will be a gift of time to take a break and reflect on ourselves.

Then, as I turned the corner of the fortress, I was surprised to find a real treasure.
As the sun set, a warm glow covered the entire harbor.
It was only then that I realized that this city might have a charm that I had never felt in any of the places I had traveled to before.
When I first arrived, I was overwhelmed with the pressure to see as much as I could before the sun set.
My mind was busy, and I was not satisfied with anything, so I just walked faster.

But it was only when my aimless, busy pace slowed down and the sun began to set that Oslo's charm was revealed.
As soon as the sunset came into view, the bell from the city hall began to ring softly, signaling the hour.
I sat on the chair on the hill as if in a trance.
Only then was I able to stop my hurried steps.

--- p.28

Grandma Deborah bragged to the guide and people, calling me her savior.
Thanks to the gloves, Grandma Deborah opened her heart to me, who was meeting her for the first time, and we took pictures of the aurora together and chatted.
Deborah said that seeing the Aurora was her dream.
In fact, I first tried an aurora tour in Iceland a few years ago.

I was disappointed at the failure, but then someone on the tour recommended Tromsø, Norway, as a better place to see the Northern Lights.
So, this was a great grandmother who came to see the Aurora again this year.

Impressed, I asked her what her next goal was now that she had achieved her dream, and she said it was to go to Antarctica.
I encouraged her, saying that she could definitely do it.

Now the aurora has appeared on the camera in a nice enough way.
After taking pictures, we were just blankly admiring the aurora together when Grandma Deborah suddenly started to cry and started talking.
“Sol, this is why I live.”
At least for Grandma Deborah, the Aurora was not a mirage.

--- p.46

While I was studying for the civil service exam, I often meditated using a meditation app, and among the meditation programs, there was a meditation called 'Caring for Your Inner Child.'
The gist of the story was that there is a childlike, whiny self within each person that wants to be understood, and that self must be cared for.

At the time, the concept was unfamiliar to me, so I questioned whether such a thing as an inner child really existed.
But here in Tromsø, as I let go of the weight of life and wept, I could feel that there was indeed an inner child inside me who longed to be understood.
And ironically, acknowledging and accepting its existence allowed me to feel relief and take a step closer to my inner self.

--- p.94

There were two things on my bucket list that I absolutely wanted to accomplish on this trip and that could symbolize my dreams.
One was to see the Northern Lights in Tromsø, and the other was to climb Preikestolen and look down at the fjord.
On this trip, those two things symbolize the goals I wanted to achieve in life.
Like passing the labor attorney exam or becoming a writer.

As a result, I succeeded in seeing the Aurora, but I was somewhat dissatisfied with Preikestolen in the Lysefjord.
But when I think about it, I have no regrets about my efforts to see the Aurora and Preikestolen, and I have faithfully carried them out.
Of course, it would be better if the result was good, but even if the result was not good, it does not mean that the effort I put in for it was invalidated.
If the effort was justified and satisfactory, that is enough.
The outcome after that is up to the heavens, it is already out of my hands.

--- p.157

The story of Roskilde Cathedral, the splendid coffins of royalty, and the knight who, in return for his devotion, was given a humble place in the crypt, is by no means over.
I sincerely hope that many workers will develop the ability to become independent someday, rather than expecting a reward for their loyalty to the company.

As I came out of the cathedral, I saw a strangely shaped sign on the road.
The scallop shell, a symbol of pilgrims seen on the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
I felt happy but also heavy-hearted.
I wonder if I can live the rest of my life outside Roskilde Cathedral.
I prayed for the strength to walk faithfully each day, hanging a sack on my bag, even though it was hard and tiring.
After a quick look around the cemetery in front of Roskilde Station, I boarded the train back to Copenhagen.
In my eyes, the common people's cemetery seemed more honorable and comfortable.

--- p.221

A passage from a Q&A by the Indian guru Osho Rajneesh that I once read in a book struck a chord with me.
The phrase was, 'When you know one thing, one thing makes you know everything, and that one thing is yourself.'
I don't mean to imply that I dare to understand the Indian guru.
As I lived my life reflecting on the life ahead of me while being broken and shattered many times, I was able to discover at the end of my journey that the awakening of my 'self' makes life enjoyable.

Now, I wish I could turn back time and tell that student before he jumped out of the academy, “You are more precious than your dreams.”

--- p.268