Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Alchemist mirroring my life

Today, I finished reading The Alchemist for the second time. I rarely read a book twice, but this book is pretty special, because it has a lot of words of wisdom in it. It speaks about matters of the heart. A boy learns to trust his heart and his heart learns to trust him through various ventures, and by working together, they accomplish the boy's "Personal Legend." To do this, it took a lot of courage, a lot was lost, but more was gained.

Through his journey, he learned to speak Arabic, the Language of the World, learned the art of business, found love and God. This tale mirrors my life in Mali in many ways. And as much as I liked the book, it also made me sad to think about the things that my heart has said, but I didn't follow through.

It's true what they say, that as we get older, our dreams die. Only a lucky few of us can still dream when we're older. I wanted to be a singer, basketball player, tennis champion, and a doctor, but all of these dreams died because I hit a road block somewhere and stopped believing. But, every once in awhile, my heart still talks about being a doctor and it causes sadness. I think this is the biggest reason why I decided to join PC. I couldn't live the rest of my life thinking of "what if?" I knew that I had to listen to my heart and take a leap of faith or else I'd regret it. I don't know if this is my Personal Legend, but I won't give up searching for it because, when one does look for it, all the universe conspires to help you.

A new school year!

With me renewing my attitude about my relationships, I'm renewing my attitude about work. It's hard working in education because there are so many "lows" and very little "highs." You can get very unmotivated, but I've decided to get over myself and get inside the classroom and teach Life Skills.

I guess I was just waiting for the right material, because I'm interested in teaching this course. Although I'm kind of nervous about teaching in Bambara, I'm also excited! It's difficult to find one's niche in a foreign environment, but I think I've found mine: I'm an advocate for youth and social development. Finally, I see my degree in Biopsychology being put to use!