The Alchemist was an interesting story as I read the graphic novel version. It was pretty neat to have the visual of the story while I was reading it, the story actually took half the time (I think) since graphic novels are easy reads. It was a good idea to read it in the graphic novel because it was a heavy theme to take in.
The novel discusses Santiago, the main character, a shepherd to find treasure in the pyramids across the desert. Santiago learns about personal legends and how he must achieve his personal legend. This main theme of the book of achieving your personal legend hits home as the book claims that once you know your personal legend and attempt to work towards achieving it, the personal legend will turn into something even greater such as gold.
There were many scenes and quotations that stuck out to me but the following two were the most applicable.
"Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World , and it will one day return there."
Often I think it's really easy for me to focus on thinking too much into decisions and not going with what my heart is telling me. It's easy to seek other's opinions when at the end of the day I should know what's best for me. Like Coelho discusses in this novel, listening to your heart is important because essentially it comes from the person who made us, Soul of the World (in my terms, God). He implants certain passions, ideas, thoughts and intuitions to confirm your own feelings.
"Everyone has his or her own way of learning things," he said to himself. "His way isn't the same way as mine, nor mine as his. But we're both in search of our Personal Legends, and I respect him for that."
Everyone has their own passions, goals and thoughts, it is important to allow others to be every ounce of who they are. This is a major life lesson that I have learned in college. I grew up with very like-minded people so when I came to college I was surprised with the diverse thinking, background and perspectives. I have learned and am still coming to terms with the idea that everyone has their own opinion and that has to be ok. this was a huge ah-ha moment for me while reading.
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