Even though most people do this journey for religious reasons, spiritual transformation wasn’t on Suzanne Maggio’s mind when she set off for this adventure. She decided to do the walk for adventure, one that would test her physical capabilities and her personal resolve.

As she started the journey, it wasn’t the one she predicted. For Suzanne, the most challenging part of the journey was when she got back home and had to make sense of the experience. Her book follows Suzanne on her trip and introduces readers to the people she met along the way (including a group of nuns who inspired the name of her podcast, From Sparks to Light).

In the days and weeks that followed, she realized that she had built a different kind of family on The Camino. It was one filled with people whose experiences, expectations, and beliefs were different from hers. It was a family of choice rather than blood, and, like her own family, she would come to depend on them. In May, Suzanne will do another solo walk, this time on the third leg of the Via Francigena in Italy. Meet Suzanne:

You are an author, but is it your day job? If not, what fills your days? I’m a social worker. Over the course of my career, I’ve worked with a wide swath of people in a whole host of settings; from children in schools and residential settings to the mentally ill, from families struggling to raise their children to unhoused folks in homeless shelters. I’ve been a therapist, school social worker, clinical director and even run a nonprofit agency. Now I share what I’ve learned as an educator to college students.

Did you always want to be an author? I can’t say I always wanted to be an author, but I did want to write a book. I’ve kept a journal on and off for most of my life and have written various things over the years. When my mother developed Alzheimer’s Disease when she was in her early 60s, I wanted to write a book so that my children would remember their Nana. That’s how my first book, The Cardinal Club: A Daughter’s Journey to Acceptance came about.

What is your most recent book and what inspired you to write it? In 2019 I was about to turn 60, a major milestone for many reasons. I wanted to do something to mark that moment but also challenge myself, so one afternoon in 2018, I announced to my husband I was going to walk The Camino de Santiago, Spain’s 799-kilometer pilgrimage from St. Jean Pied de Port, a small village on the French border, to Santiago, Spain. It was a life changing journey for me.  Estrellas: Moments of Illumination Along El Camino de Santiago is my effort to make sense of what I learned along the way.

How do you hope your book uplifts those who read it? o What are you most excited about with this book? For me one of the lessons of the Camino was about the humanity we all share. I met people from all over the world with lives and stories very different from my own. I spent a lot of time listening to those stories as I walked, and they changed me. It was a profound learning. Our world would be far more peaceful if we could learn to listen to one another.

How did writing a book help your career take off?  It’s the other way around. One of the things I like most about being a social worker is the opportunity to hear people’s stories. Stories of struggle and resilience. Pain and growth. Real life is fascinating. Being a social worker helps me write.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to succeed in your professional industry? Social Work is the profession of helping. One of the misconceptions about it is that as social workers we are doing work for those who cannot do for themselves. The marginalized and the disenfranchised. The people who are treated unfairly or unjustly by the larger system. That is true to some extent, but the real work of a social worker is to bear witness to the struggles of others and help them find their way forward. It’s their work, not ours. We need to support our clients in living life to the best of their ability.

How do you handle setbacks and criticism? When I finished my first memoir, The Cardinal Club, I sent out 75 letters to agents and publishers. I received dozens of rejections before I found one willing to take a risk on a new author. That was hard. But the hardest setback was starting and failing to write that book so many times before I succeeded. One of the most profound and difficult learnings from that time was the understanding that I wasn’t ready to tell that story yet. I was still in it. Still too close to it. I needed to let it marinate a little bit. Eventually the story was ready to be told.

Being an author today is like running a business. How do you manage all your publicity, social media and keep your engagement up with readers? That part is hard. To be honest, it’s not my favorite part. I love hearing from readers, but the rest of it is a struggle. I often feel like I’m not doing it very well.

How do you hold yourself accountable and achieve the goals that you set forth When I wrote The Cardinal Club, I hired a writing coach. She helped me focus on what I needed to do. We met monthly and I would show her what I’d done, and she’d give me feedback. Writing a book is a big undertaking, and learning how to do that took some time. I often say, without the slightest bit of over exaggeration, if it wasn’t for her, I would never have written that book. By the time I wrote Estrellas, I knew what I needed to do.

How do you structure your day and make time for writing? I’m a morning person. I get up early and start writing as soon as I’ve had my coffee. I feel freshest at that time, before the activities of the day crowd my brain and heart space. I start each writing session with a meditation, just to bring me to the moment.

What do you find most fulfilling in the career that you’ve chosen? I often tell my students, Social Work isn’t a career, it’s a calling. I have a strong belief that we all have a responsibility to make the world a better place.  Whether it be small actions in our community like mentoring or volunteering at the local food bank or larger acts like teaching, working with the unhoused or creating policy that allows all of us to live with dignity, that’s our work to do. We can’t leave it to others. Being a social worker has allowed me to be involved firsthand in that and learn one of the most important lessons of life, people are people. No matter where we come from or what we believe, we all want the same thing —to live a life of dignity surrounded by people who love us.

What book uplifts you? So many! I love Anne Lamott’s work. Her unbridled honesty and sharp wit always make me smile.

Anything else you’d like to share with your readers?  One of the things I was reminded of when I walked the Camino is the power of story. All of us have a story to tell, a journey that can inspire someone else. During the pandemic I launched a podcast, From Sparks to Light, to share the stories of people who are making a difference in their communities. You can find it in all the regular podcast places. To date I’ve done more than 70 interviews. I’m constantly blown away by the power of the work we are all capable of doing to make the world a better place.

Connect with Suzanne and learn more about her adventures and writing via her website.