In "The Alchemist" the main character, Santiago, faced a total of four obstacles that are explained throughout the book. I believe that in my life I will go through somewhat of the same obstacles in order to achieve my goals. .
The first obstacle had stated that from a young age we are told that our dreams are "impossible" (Coelho, x). I was born in Puerto Rico, from there at the age of 3 my family moved to Connecticut, then again we moved to Philadelphia and this is where we stayed. As a kid my life was easy because there wasn't much expected from me other than getting good grades. Ever since I was little I had a passion for dancing. My mother used to be a dancer when she lived in Puerto Rico and she made it as far as being a back up dancer for famous Spanish artists. She was hoping that I'd turn out to be a dancer seeing as my 3 older sisters didn't enjoy it. Luckily for her, I had more passion than those three had put together and more. She was all for me being a dancer and pursuing my dream. My dad didn't share the same enthusiasm that my mother did. He told me that for me to make it as a dancer would be impossible that I just had to stay in school and work to have a profession that made me money. That being happy didn't pay the bills. In my heart I knew that he was wrong that I could and would achieve greatness. So I compromised with him. I'd stay in school but also be able to dance after school as long as I kept everything balanced. This is what I've been doing since I was 15. It hasn't been easy but it has been worth it.
"We know what we want to do, but we are afraid of hurting those around us by abandoning everything in order to pursue our dream" (Coelho, x). To me this means that one of our biggest obstacles is love. Love forces us to hesitate in making decisions because we don't want to hurt others. Love or what we believe that love is can also cause us to be blind and lead us to making wrong decisions that in turn may also hurt others.
