The Alchemist

The book that has influenced me greatly over these years is The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Its a book that has guided me through times of peril and has kept me headstrong through convoluted situations. The novel tells the tale of Santiago, a boy who has a dream and the courage to follow it. After listening to "the signs" the boy ventures in his personal, Ulysses-like journey of exploration and self-discovery, symbolically searching for a hidden treasure located near the pyramids in Egypt. It changes your perception of the world. Not only has it changed how I understand what it truly means to have faith not in existences of a supreme being but on your inner instinct (Though the book may be interpreted differently) but has also showed me what a persons Raison Detre really means to our existence.
In fact its helped me identify my own goals , which you may call my short term raison detre.
The experience of reading this book is one that I have shared many times with friends and family , as it holds a very special sentiment every time I read it. The book has also taught me about how failure isn't a loss , but a slower more knowledgeable and Crucial part of any journey. Failure and other obstacles are what make a journey enthralling. The book is an exciting novel that bursts with optimism; it is the

In a more exhaustive sense it has shown me what it really means to work towards something , the sacrifice it requires to achieve them. Another one of my favorite quotes from the book is - |Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity