For my sixth and final response I will be writing about the written text “The Alchemist” written by Paulo Coelho. As mentioned in the title, an alchemist is a person who transforms or creates something through a seemingly magical process. This book is about a young man from spain named Santiago, who disobeyed his parents wishes of becoming a priest, to become a free walking shepherd as he liked the freedom of travelling with his sheep; going to new pastures. The main character teaches us about keeping on moving forward, no matter how tough things get.

I would recommend this text because the basis of the storyline is following your dreams, regardless of what other people want of you. Santiago had a high standard to uphold with his parents, as they had planned and expected a whole nother life out of him that he didn’t want so much. Santiago’s parents wanted him to be a priest, but Santiago wanted to become a shepherd and follow his dreams to finding treasure. Santiago carries this out and as thought the process wasn’t easy. He had many challenges arise that put him down or set him a step back or seemed awfully risky, but everytime he was beat down he got up one more time. This is because he was passionate, and determination kept him going. I would recommend this text for people to read because it is inspiring. It may seem like a silly story, with the use of ‘magic’ and an alchemist. However if you look at what it’s teaching us, it’s teaching us to follow our own personal dreams and passions; not letting anything get in our way. I recommend this text because it teaches us about determination and following your own wishes, regardless of what people expect of you.

In the world we live in today, people are losing track of what they should be. This book talks about a young man who is on a journey to self discovery. The more he pushes himself in a direction based on Omans and following his heart.. The closer he gets to the treasure; not only what he dreamed of finding in Egypt, but in himself. Our mind and determination is a powerful thing and the book shows how the power of self belief can lead someone into great life. The author talks a lot about finding happiness by following your dreams and your ‘personal legend’. This says a lot about the world we live in today’s current society. A lot of people are unhappy and anxious because they make decisions based on money and what they ‘should’ do. I have noticed from this book that people who don’t follow their own dreams and beliefs, with their nose over their shoulder looking at what everyone else is doing, isn’t living a life so much of their own. Then somewhere along the lines, they wonder why what they’re doing isn’t working out for them; and it’s because it’s not their own strengths. Santiago didn’t know about ‘destiny’. “It’s what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young knows what their destiny is.” that when we are young, everything is clear and seemingly possible for us. However “as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realise their destiny.” What this text teaches me about the world we live in today, is not the fact the text is to do with magic and treasure; but about people, and that those who find their worth and strengths as well as destiny find themselves much happier and successful, than those who follow a designed track.

This book relates back to me personally in a way where my dad always says to me about what it takes to be successful and happy with what I do in my life, whether it’s even sport or work. There are many factors, but the main ones he thinks are passion, determination and opportunity. In the book, Santiago decides to follow his heart and find what awaits him on his personal legend. He is passionate about getting to the pyramids and the further along his journey he gets, the more passionate he is. The boy is not determined to let small failures get in the way of him searching for this treasure. He meets people along his journey who offer him opportunities as such, and help him on his journey in hopes he will reach his passionate dreams. I find this relatable back to my life with equestrian and my future. I am very passionate about my horse riding and my horses. I want to be the best I can be, and for my horses; i feel driven to go out there every day and achieve more and learn more after every summer season. I am driven by my parents and riding instructors, who push me and give me such opportunities i have been offered so far. Because of my passion I feel for horse riding, and the people i have helping me along the way, i will be able to achieve many of my goals. It is a dangerous sport, and every ride there’s a chance of failure and falling off, or even getting hurt badly; But because I love riding so much i feel pushed to carry on after failing. I feel i can really relate to the boy in the book as he is following his passions, achieving so much more like I am doing with my horses.

This book relates back to the world culturally. I have taken in and thought a lot about this book, and what it teaches the reader about meaning and purposes. One idea has stuck with me the most, and that is that these issues of self-purpose and passions, is the same for everyone in the world. Everyone has challenges with their life, big and small, no matter who they are or where they are. We all have things that we find hard to deal with, like in regard to this book; Santiago would have found it hard to go against what culturally seemed right in his family – being a priest. We all have things that are hard for us to deal with, and some people can handle things better than others. Everybody uses different techniques and beliefs to make decisions and cope with issues, but whatever it is they believe it will help them succeed. People use religion, love, passion, war, gut instinct and so on. Both my parents are religious, and decisions and actions can be acted upon by that. Just as the alchemist believes in the fact that “when you really want something, the universe always conspires in your favour.” So he bases the decisions off the signs he believes are from the universe. We all have our own problems we are trying to solve, we just need to figure out what we believe in so that we can use that to help ourselves. This is why i believe the text relates back to the world we live in culturally.

The alchemist is an empowering and meaningful book. We follow Santiago’s story of chasing his dreams on finding treasure and becoming a shepherd regardless of what his parents wanted of him. We learn many important lessons from Santiago and his bravery, about how it’s ok to allow help, do what makes us happy, and if failure gets in the way not to let it stop you.