This week we started working on our group reading projects. My group read the book "The Alchemist", and I binge read it this week in about 3 hours. It was a really good book, but I think it inaccurately portrayed traveling and chasing your dream.
After I read the book, I was super inspired to go out and do stuff. I was thinking that maybe I could graduate early, and then travel or go to college earlier than I planned. The Alchemist took the stance that if you go out and follow your dream, taking clues from random events in the world, everything will work out well for you. It glossed over all of the hard things that the boy did -like working in a glass shop for a year- and every little clue that the boy followed helped him in the right direction. I don't know if the author actually believed in omens and the Soul of the World, but it seems like he does. After I finished the book, I was so convinced that it was right. I thought that if you try for something, everything else will fall into place the way you want.
But then I took a step back and started actually thinking for myself. Following your dream in real life is much harder. The universe doesn't just help you along the way like in the book; there aren't omens and clues left for you along the way. I think that this book is another great example of the idea I talked about last week. When you read the book you may think that it is telling you the truth of how the world works, but in the end it is just a story meant to share the author's opinion. You then have to decide whether or not the opinion is correct.
I think that the book is right in that it is important to learn from your environment and follow your dreams, but I disagree about the extent at which following your dreams is necessary. Most people don't have a prophetic vision outlining exactly what they should strive for. If you get to a place in life that isn't where you originally planned on being, but keeps you happy, it's okay to change what you were striving for.
After I read the book, I was super inspired to go out and do stuff. I was thinking that maybe I could graduate early, and then travel or go to college earlier than I planned. The Alchemist took the stance that if you go out and follow your dream, taking clues from random events in the world, everything will work out well for you. It glossed over all of the hard things that the boy did -like working in a glass shop for a year- and every little clue that the boy followed helped him in the right direction. I don't know if the author actually believed in omens and the Soul of the World, but it seems like he does. After I finished the book, I was so convinced that it was right. I thought that if you try for something, everything else will fall into place the way you want.
But then I took a step back and started actually thinking for myself. Following your dream in real life is much harder. The universe doesn't just help you along the way like in the book; there aren't omens and clues left for you along the way. I think that this book is another great example of the idea I talked about last week. When you read the book you may think that it is telling you the truth of how the world works, but in the end it is just a story meant to share the author's opinion. You then have to decide whether or not the opinion is correct.
I think that the book is right in that it is important to learn from your environment and follow your dreams, but I disagree about the extent at which following your dreams is necessary. Most people don't have a prophetic vision outlining exactly what they should strive for. If you get to a place in life that isn't where you originally planned on being, but keeps you happy, it's okay to change what you were striving for.