Choosing Spain was easy.
I already knew the language. Or at least, I knew enough of it to trust myself. After months of broken sentences, patient smiles, and learning by necessity, Spanish no longer felt like a wall it felt like a door.
I applied to several workaways, and the yeses came quickly. Easier this time. My Costa Rica hosts had written me a review so generous it felt like a quiet hand on my back, pushing me forward. Reputation travels, even when you’re trying not to think about the future.
I accepted two placements in Spain.
The first was Gran Canaria.
Like Golfito before it, I had no idea where it was.
“You’ll have to fly here”, my host said.
Fly… where?
I had just landed in Madrid. Surely it was nearby. A train, maybe? A long bus ride?
That’s when I learned that Spain has islands. That Gran Canaria wasn’t on the mainland at all, but floating out in the Atlantic like a punctuation mark I hadn’t noticed before.
So I flew again. From the airport, I took a local bus to the address my host had sent. The ride was quiet, unfamiliar in a comforting way. I noticed something else too… I was traveling lighter.
Physically, my bags had shrunk. Mentally, so had my expectations. Somewhere along the road, I’d learned that you need far less than you think… and that most of what weighs you down isn’t packed in a suitcase.
When I arrived, the house was empty.
Of course it was.
There’s something fitting about that now my workaway arrivals always seem to begin alone. I found my room, set my bag down, and didn’t overthink it. No anxiety spiral. No second-guessing. Just familiarity.
I headed into the small town to find dinner.
When I returned, my host was there, greeting me with the same warm smile she’d worn during our video interview. We opened wine. Shared snacks. Did the gentle dance of getting to know you conversation where stories are offered, not interrogated.
And we spoke in Spanish.
Not perfect Spanish. Not polished. But real. Ninety percent conversation. Ten percent Google Translate. A ratio that would have felt impossible to me a year ago.
It felt like a miracle.
Tonight, I rest. Tomorrow, we work.
And for the first time in a long time, that doesn’t feel like a threat.