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| Cathrine Mountain Class of 2015 |
A good friend recently gave me a book to read. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is the story of a shepherd boy from Spain who goes on a journey to find his Personal Legend – his purpose in life. The boy’s journey begins when he encounters a king with mystical powers. The boy tells the king about a recurring dream in which the boy is sent to the pyramids in Egypt to find a great treasure. In a dialogue that is rich with allusions to listening to one’s intuition or following one’s nose – as a great ambassador once told us – the king tells the boy that he must go on a journey to the pyramids and find his treasure. Even though the boy thinks that he is in search of a great physical treasure, it is obvious that he will find something much more intangible at the end of his journey.
I am at a point in the story in which the boy has departed on his adventure, run into a number of roadblocks, and spent a year working in a crystal shop to make enough money so that he can return home. He is on the verge of returning home when he recalls the encounter that he had with the king exactly a year earlier. He remembers his mission to find his treasure in the pyramids of Egypt. He soon realizes that his role as a shepherd will always be waiting for him in Spain. The lessons that he has learned and his obligation to the sheep will always be there and he can return to them at any time that he chooses. But there are still miles of desert ahead of him that stand as a challenge to him realizing his Personal Legend.
Not only is this book packed with so many pieces of profound wisdom, but it stands as a calling for us all to struggle with our own expression of the shepherd’s journey. As a graduating senior, I cannot think of a better time to have come across this book and I will forever be grateful to my friend for introducing me to this gem of a book and for the role that she has played in helping me work toward my Personal Legend.
Cathrine Mountain is a senior McConnell Scholar majoring in political science and anthropology. She is from Frankfort, Ky.