Emma Allison

HNRS 250

Natalie Morgan

April 25, 2023

Honors Reflection Essay

The reading that stood out to me the most was The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. The book

follows Santiago on his journey to fulfill his Personal Legend. Santiago starts as a shepherd, but

his real dream is to find treasure at the base of the Egyptian Pyramids. He starts by telling this

dream to some people and they encourage him to travel to Egypt and fulfill his dream. His first

step is to sell all his sheep to get enough money to begin his travels. He doesn’t get very far and

must put his journey on hold because all his money has been stolen. To make enough money to

continue his travel, he gets a job at a crystal store. While he is working at the store, he tells an

old man about his dream to visit the pyramids. This man serves as a guide to him and gives him

something to help him on his quest. He makes good money working for the merchant and

questions if it is worth it to continue to fulfill his Personal Legend or give up and continue

working for the rest of his life. After a year, he saves enough money and is ready to start his

journey to the pyramids again.

He joins a caravan of people traveling across the desert and makes friends with someone

who wants to become an alchemist. They get stopped in a town along the way. Here Santiago is

able to get an omen and warn people about the attacks that are about to happen. The alchemist

hears about Santiago and talks to him about following his heart and pursuing his Personal

Legend. The alchemist and Santiago continue onto the pyramids. They get attacked on the
journey and have to give up all their money so they don’t get killed. Once Santiago reaches the

pyramid, other people try to attack him again but realize that he has no money. One of the guys

thinks what Santiago is doing is dumb and retells a story about his own dream. It is in this story

that Santiago is able to realize where the treasure is and go back home and retrieve it.

I think this book applies is applicable to my life but also to life in general. When we are

young, we have big dreams for ourselves and haven’t been pressured by the world to do anything

we don’t want to do or be anyone we don’t want to be. We don’t feel the external pressure

forcing us to behave in a certain way. As we get older though, we start to lose hope of our

original dreams and become molded by society. We don’t have the same naiveness that we had

when we were younger. Society places expectations upon everyone to achieve certain milestones,

even if they don’t line up with what the individual actually wants for their life. Santiago at the

beginning was representative of a child. He didn’t see any issues in fulfilling his Personal

Legend. To him, there was nothing stopping him. Each mistake or setback Santiago faces

represents the different pressures and expectations from society that stop us from fulfilling our

dreams.

This book was a good reminder that you have control over your life and that you

shouldn’t lose track of your dreams. It is so easy in today’s society to become content with the

life that you are living. You may have big dreams but are afraid to take risks and achieve them.

What you have at the current time is good enough and it isn’t worth the risk. This book

challenges people to never settle and continue to strive for what they want.

This book reminded me of my first year of college. I was not happy and honestly was

living in fear of what others thought of me and what impression I was leaving on others. I was

not happy and was really considering transferring at the end of freshman year. Again, I was
stopped by fear. I was scared that I wasn’t going to like a different school anymore and I already

knew people here at Drury. Luckily, I was able to find happiness and peace within myself and I

decided to stay here. I knew from the first time I was on campus that this school was where I

wanted to go regardless of if I fully understood that feeling then or not. I had many challenges

and setbacks the first year that almost made me give up everything I had. I was able to see

through it and preserve and I’m so glad that I did now. I would have had a completely different

life if I had transferred and moved back home. This book was a good reminder that you shouldn’t

settle and that you should continue to push yourself. You are responsible for making the best life

possible for yourself.