Despite the academic journals, I've been reading during the year in order to meet the coursework of the university, the An alchemist was the extracurricular book I’ve read in 2018.
The alchemist is an adventure fiction book written by Paulo Coelho, a Brazilian author. The book has been
originally written in Portuguese and later translated into 80 different
languages; it is the most translated book by any living author. Alchemist is
also one of the international bestseller books that have been listed in the New
York Times in 2017.
In addition, over 65 million copies of the
book were sold. And currently, it is one of the top-rated novel books to read
in the world, though it marks its 30th anniversary in 2018.
The book is so fascinated and captured my
entire attention; I couldn’t put it down until I reached the last spot of the
book. The book isn’t just like other ordinary novel books; it’s rather a
motivational book that keeps you moving forward to your dreams.
I personally considered this book as one
of the best readings I had ever. It also provided me a huge amount of motivation
that I needed to develop my goals and vision.
The story of the book was about a young Andalusian
shepherd, named Santiago. His purpose and passion in life were to travel to
know and understand the world better. Besides this, the boy was able every day
to live out his dream – which was to discover a hidden treasure near the Pyramids,
in Egypt.
During Santiago’s journey to the Pyramids,
he met many people who shaped his understandings of the world. An old man who claimed to be the king of Salem
was amongst the great characters he met, the old king completely changed the
boy’s thoughts and understandings of the universe.
One of the incredible quotes I individually
recorded from the old king was “When you want something, the
whole universe conspires to help you achieve it”. That means if you want something and you are putting it all your
energy, time and focus, then the universe collaborates you in order to achieve
your dream. Therefore, Santiago had lived with this quote for a while, almost
his entire life.
One of the best scenes that I was attracted
by the book was when the old king told the boy a short story about a shopkeeper
who sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the
wisest man in the world. The boy wandered through the desert
for forty days and finally came upon a beautiful castle and high atop a mountain,
where the wise man lived. The wise man was conversing with others, and the boy had to wait for two hours
before it was his turn.
On his turn, the wise man listened
attentively to the boy's explanation of why he had come but told him that he
didn't have time to explain the secret of happiness. But he rather suggested
that the boy walk around his palace and return in two hours. Meanwhile, the
wise man asked the boy to do for him a favor, then he handed the boy a teaspoon
with two drops of oil and said, “As you wander around to carry this spoon with you
without allowing the oil to spill”.
The boy climbed and descending the many stairways
of the palace while keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. After two hours, he
returned to the room where the wise man was. The wise man asked the boy if he
noticed the beauty of the palace, but the boy was embarrassed because he had
observed nothing. His only concern had been not to spill the oil that the wise
man had entrusted to him.
The wise man allowed him to go
back and observe the marvels of his world. The boy relieved, he picked up the
spoon and returned to the palace by observing everything now. He returned to
the man and he related in detail everything he had seen. But the wise man asked
where are the drops of the oil?. The boy looked down at the spoon and he noticed
that the oil was gone. The wise man then revealed, “Well, the secret of
happiness is to see all the marvels of the world and never to forget the drops
of oil on the spoon”.
The two drops of the oil were the boy’s
purpose and mission of life, the author has called this, Personal Legend and wandering around the palace was the boy’s
experience of life. Therefore, the secret of happiness is to maintain your
purpose/dreams at the same time experience everything that life has to offer.
Back to Santiago who had also faced a number
of hardships. He met up with an old gypsy woman who frightened him when she
tried to read his palm in order to translate the dream he had twice. Another
painful scene in the novel that I came across was, when Santiago had sold out
his sixty sheep in order to realize his dream and travelled from Tarifa to
Tangier, but when he was in Tangier and wanted to pursue his destiny to Egypt,
he was being robbed.
The boy had frustrated and ended up
having nothing to travel further even nothing to eat. He was about to give it
all up but because of the powerful wisdoms he inherited from the old king kept
him calm. The boy had worked for a crystal merchant for an entire year just to
earn the same money he had been betrayed. The boy finally travelled to
Egypt, he had seen the Pyramids and realized his dream. But unfortunately, the
treasure wasn’t there, he was told that his treasure is in Andalusia, his own
city. He returned back to home and got enough gold there.
In a nutshell, we easily give up on our
dreams, yet the universe is always ready to help us to fulfill our dreams. Moreover,
we (human being) choose to stay with something we accustomed to rather than to
achieve our dreams.
I’ve got a great lesson from Santiago’s
life, he had to choose between something he accustomed to – staying with his
flock of sheep – and something he dreams – to discover the hidden treasure in
Egypt –. He determined to realize his dreams.
It would be unfair if I claim that I can
summarize the whole book in just a few words, but I rather decided – due to the
importance of the book – to summarize on another separate article. Click here to find the article.
Have a great New Year further with full
of achievements!
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