The Answers... by Niles

The Answers... by Niles - February 2015 Scholarship Essay

I think that every child should read the book, "The Alchemist", before they graduate high school. This book is an allegory that speaks to every person that has a dream to be or do anything in life.

When I first read this book, I was at a place in my life where I was searching for the answers to some very deep questions about my own life. "Who am I?", "Where do I belong in this world?" and "Do I have what it takes?". These are questions that every man and woman have to face and answer at some point in life on this earth.

After graduating high school, where any young person has grown into an "upper-class citizen" of the school community, they reach the "actual world" and realize they are but freshmen. It is then that the intensity of these questions grow, profoundly. I found that this book was able to, with out telling me exactly what to do in my own personal life, help me realize the answers to these questions.

I believe what the Holy Bible says about me. I believe in the love of God for me. While this book, "The Alchemist", is not religious, it was able to help me to see that everyone in this world has a path that they are made for; that they are born to walk, and no one can walk it except for them. We create with God as we forge into the future in faith that the answers to every situation are already within us. Everything we need for our journey was given to us before we ever started.