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I finished reading The Alchemist last night, feeling not as inspired as I had expected myself to be. Today, we went to the mall. To my dismay, I lost the book that I had been reading lately. What's more, the book is on writing and has inspired me to write more and to treat writing as a hobby. Hate it when this happens, esp. after a long, bad week at work. Didn't I lose enough? Did I need this last punch to my face before I start the new week? Then I thought about what the Alchemist says: "When you really want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." and what the book says about omens. Does this mean my losing the book is a bad omen? Is it a sign showing me that all the universe conspires in telling me to stop dreaming? All the talk on omens and "the whole world conspires" nonsense offends me. It's all BS!
Another thing that the book offends me is what it says about your loved ones. Your loved ones want you to be happy, so go ahead and pursue your dream and your Personal Legend. Well, it was easy for the boy in the book to do so, to leave the girl that he just met and fell in love with. Is that practical for me, having two young kids depending on my care, a mortgage waiting for my paycheck, a husband who is not as rich as a millionaire to allow me to follow my dream? oh, did I mention I have my mom here living with us too? Can I just leave them alone to look for my treasure? Am I being cynical here or taking things too literally? But, Mr. Coelho, could you tell me what you would do if you were in my shoes? My uncomfortable "shoes" are like this now: I just found out that my application for an internal position, which is one level higher than my current one, was rejected. If I got the job, it would have meant a promotion. But I didn't get it, not too surprising because I had thought that they went with someone else as they didn't contact me last month after my interview. What really rubbed salt in the wound was that the director called me that morning, missed me on the phone, and emailed me saying that she would call me in the afternoon. I was pumped up because I thought only HR or an email will deliver the rejection. A phone call, then later a scheduled half-an-hour meeting, means, she had a lot to say to me and that should be good news, right? oh, wasn't I wrong and naive! The director told me in the meeting, they were going with a candidate in the UK. The reason she called me was because I was equally qualified as the UK person. But the UK location won. What a shitty excuse! If they had decided it was going to be a position in the UK, why didn't they say so in the job description? Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that I am not at a very happy place in the corporate ladder climbing thing right now and I actually think I never will be. So what my dream is, and what kind of personal legend I want to leave behind? You tell me, Mr. Coelho, I don't know. Maybe that's why you used "boy" in the book to refer to that young lad who is actually over 20, I think. Because you said, it was easier for children to see their dream and therefore follow their dream. I wasn't one of those lucky ones. I never had any "treasure" dreams and I don't know what kind of Personal Legend I want to leave behind.
After venting the above, my husband, with whom I had a fight today because I was too grouchy this weekend, suggested me to read the book he recommended to me a while back. The book is called The Hero Within. Mr. Coelho, I am going to start that book tomorrow, I suggest you to read it too because this book supposedly talks about different phases or archetypes your inner self goes through, you go from an orphan, innocent, wanderer, warrior, and altruist to a magician eventually. I guess, Mr. Coelho, your book kind of has a similar idea, but all the fable talk and exotic alchemy crap didn't sit well with an already-irritated me. I have to admit I was quite sleepy last night when I was finishing it. So maybe I wasn't reading between the lines. I will come back to read your book again. My apology if this review won't sit well with you either.
Or maybe I am just not ready, as you said in the book, to follow my dream yet.
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