Reflection Paper

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.

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Emma Allison

April 25, 2023

Honors Reflection Essay

journey to the pyramids again.

possible for yourself.

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