Emine Yegân Erdem, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
BY MELİS ERDEM (ARCH/II)
The book I have chosen for this interview is “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. It’s about a young man’s spiritual journey—but it starts in his own town, where he dreams about a treasure that is buried in Egypt somewhere near the pyramids. The young man, Santiago, wants to pursue this dream and find the treasure. So, he goes off on his journey, where he meets many people and finally, after traveling a long time, arrives in Egypt where the treasure is supposed to be. But when he gets there, he realizes that the treasure he was seeking was actually in the place where he first saw the dream—the place where the story started. So it was like he was searching for something that was in fact right next to him, but he had to make the entire journey to figure that out.
This book is about pursuing dreams, doing what you really want to do in your life, and believing in yourself. It contains some very good messages, like go after your dreams, and listen to your heart. I read “The Alchemist” when I was in middle school; it was a good influence for a kid of that age. And when I look back, I realize that it’s good to set a goal at an early age so that you can follow your dreams and be a little bit idealistic about your life, in order to get to the best possible place for you.
During his journey, Santiago meets a king who takes him to his palace. The king tells him that he can look inside the palace and walk around, but, he says, “While you’re walking, you have to carry a spoon that’s filled with oil without spilling it.” In the same way, life is a kind of journey you go through. You pursue things, you do your job, and you take care of things. But at the same time, you have other responsibilities you must not forget. So it’s a good message, I think.
There’s a quote from the book I would like to share with you: “Sometimes the thing that we look for is actually very near to us, inside us; rather than somewhere
outside.”
Probably nothing extremely bad would have happened if I hadn’t read this particular book. But it gave me a nice feeling after reading it; it helped me think more positively about the future and about life. So I guess it was a positive influence, although if I hadn’t read it, I probably would have found the same message somewhere else.
There are a couple of other books by the same author that I also like. One of them is “The Zahir,” which is again about a journey, this time made by a woman. During her journey she also seeks something more philosophical and eventually finds it. Another of Coelho’s books that I’ve read is “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept,” but I found this one less memorable than “The Alchemist” and “The Zahir.”
I do recommend “The Alchemist.” It’s a very well-written novel, worth reading not just for its topic but also as a piece of literature. I sometimes go back and revisit certain parts of this book just to remember. It has some really nice passages and offers some very important ideas.