“I am following my destiny.” (Coelho 107) In The Alchemist, a young shepherd named Santiago, from the lands of Andalusia, Spain, decides to go in a journey to achieve his destiny. First Santiago meets a Gypsy and an old King called Melchizedek, those two characters helped Santiago understand what his dream was and what his destiny was. On the middle of his journey, Santiago arrives to a port called Tangier, Africa; there Santiago is robbed by a guy who he met at a local. Towards the end, Santiago met the Alchemist, the Englishmen and Fatima; these characters helped Santiago understand why he should not stop on his journey to his destiny. All this characters helped Santiago finish his journey on his destiny braver, wiser and more spiritual.
Santiago became wiser as he traveled. Santiago learned mightily from the omens, the crystal merchant, Fatima, and the unforgettable Alchemist. All of these characters made Santiago wiser, by teaching Santiago how to continue his destiny and why to do so. There are some examples; one of them is when Fatima told Santiago that it was alright to leave because she was a woman of the desert and that her destiny was to stay home and wait for her man and that destiny was finally coming true; this made Santiago wiser because in other words, Fatima told him that to be a family they don’t have to be together because as long as the couple is joyful, love will always be with them no matter how far apart they are. Another example is when the Alchemist told Santiago what the consequences were going to be if he staged at the oasis with Fatima and didn’t complete his destiny; this teaches not only Santiago but also us that once one is started on a journey towards our destiny we should never quit. One big example is when Santiago managed to turn himself into the wind by speaking to the desert, the wind and the sun; this made Santiago wiser because it was something new that he had learned how to do and this could also help him understand the secrets of the Master Work. During his journey, as Santiago became wiser, his spirituality also grew. #1
Santiago became more spiritual as he traveled towards his destiny. On the story there are great examples. An example is when Santiago could understand his sheep; the way that this helped Santiago become more spiritual was by giving him knowledge of the Universal Language, even though he didn’t know anything about it; the talking to sheep was something that no one else could do. Another example is that Santiago could read omens without knowing that he was going to learn more about them and about the Soul of the World; this made Santiago more spiritual because without knowing it, he was learning from the Universal Language. A big example is when Santiago didn’t know how to turn himself into the wind, but he managed to by speaking to the desert, the wind, and sun, and by doing all that he figured out that the Soul of the World was part of the Soul of God and that that soul was part of his own soul and that he a boy could make miracles happen; this made Santiago more spiritual because then he would trust himself more than what he used to. Indeed, Santiago was very spiritual but he also had to be mightily brave. (#2)
For Santiago to make it through his journey towards his destiny, he needed to become braver. There are some examples and one of them is when Santiago sold his sheep in order to have money to go on his journey: this made Santiago brave by letting him know that to start a journey towards one destiny; we might have to leave our most valuable objects behind. Another example was when Santiago got robbed at the market place (the belly of the whale); this made Santiago braver by teaching him that you never know what might happen to you once arrived in a new town or city. On his journey, Santiago accomplishes his destiny by being outstandingly brave.
Santiago learned how to be a better person, for him to learn how to be a better person, Santiago had to set out on a journey towards his destiny without knowing the consequences. That journey can teach us how to be better people and also how we should never quit to our destiny because it can change our lives. Santiago also became a better person by mightily learning from Melchizedek, the crystal merchant, Fatima and the Alchemist, about the secrets of the world and what love is.
Being a participant in one's destiny, is a task everyone has to do in order to succeed on it. In the journey towards our destiny, there are many traits that describe us as participants on it, but there is always one that describes us more as participants. For me is being adaptable, this characteristic has always been helping me every time that I have moved to a new country. For example, the first time was when I moved from Venezuela to Houston and it was hard because I barely knew the basics of English so that made it nearly impossible for me to find any friends because I couldn’t understand them, but after three months I learned how to speak English so then I could talk to people and make friends. The second time was when I moved from Houston to Saudi Arabia right in the middle of seventh grade, Saudi was a whole different place than the United States and they had different cultures, but the system of the school was American so it only took about a month for me to get adapted to the school but what was tough is that I moved from Saudi Arabia to here Malaysia five months after I had moved to Saudi Arabia, but I got adapted extremely quickly to the school here and now I like it here and I have many friends.
This characteristic shows it’s easy for me to adapt to new scholar systems and programs, new classmates with different cultures, new teachers, and sometimes new classes.
