Dreams

MANILA, Philippines - The book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one of the books that I will never forget as long as I live. A good friend lent me this valuable book when I was on the verge of quitting college because of my desire to financially help my family. One thing that really caught my attention was the passage “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream.” 

Aside from the great morals that it gives readers, I love this book because I can also relate to Santiago a lot. Like him, I’ve gone through different obstacles before I was able find my treasure — the fulfillment of my dreams. 

When I was five years old my parents got separated and all the luxuries that I used to enjoy were gone.  Afraid of not being able to raise my sister and me all by herself, my mother sought my father’s replacement, and hence the beginning of our seemingly endless nightmare. I vividly remember back then my mother was at the point of boarding a plane going to the Middle East to work as a beautician but because of her fear of leaving us alone with him, she decided to stay with us instead. Since my mom did not have enough money to reinstate what we used to enjoy, she decided to rent a house in a squatters’ area where most of the people seemed to be hopeless.  I grew up seeing and hearing negative things in my surroundings, from the bickering of my neighbors to the riots of different gangsters almost every single week.  Despite the economic challenges, non-conducive environment and an abusive, alcoholic stepfather, I opted not to wallow in desperation and tried to survive because I had a dream.  I dreamt that someday I would be able earn enough money to take my family away from poverty.  I dreamt that one day, I would no longer collect garbage or sell lumpia or turon to my neighbors just to earn money and put food on our table.   

However, as I grew older I realized that having a dream is not enough; a great deal of effort has to be exerted and the seemingly endless obstacles have to be surpassed to achieve your dream. Like Melchizedek the King of Salem said: “The closer you get to the realization of your dream, the more difficult things will become.”  It took me eight years to finish elementary school not because I was stupid but because I had to temporarily stop going to school because I needed to help my mother to feed my siblings (I have four more siblings from my stepfather). So I was so elated when my mother told me one day that I was going to go back to school.

Because of my dream to finish high school with flying colors, I was going to school rain or shine, with food or without food. I often walked more than a kilometer just to not miss any lesson, not to mention the cruelty of my stepfather who often threw my books out the window whenever he was seeing me studying my lessons at home. There was a time when he burned all my books including the test papers that my teacher asked me to check. On top of that, some of my friends and classmates were taunting me whenever they saw me going to school and going home walking. I endured all this with one goal in mind — my dream. 

I thank God because He did not allow me to get discouraged and so I was able to finish high school as the batch salutatorian. Although I was able to achieve my dream to finish high school with flying colors and scholarship offers were abundant, I chose to join the work force instead.  I stopped going to school again without really knowing when I would be able to go back.

I worked as a factory worker, messenger and even janitor. Like Santiago when he was working at the merchant’s crystal shop, I always think that those were not exactly the kind of jobs that would make me happy and the fervent desire to fulfill my dream of going back to school to earn a degree was still inside me. 

Indeed, “When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream” because after five long years of waiting I was able to go back to college through a government scholarship and I was able to finish college as batch valedictorian and cum laude at the same time. Yet another dream come true.

Then, while working as a customer service representative I met a polyglot colleague. Since then I dreamt of becoming like her someday.

“There is only one way to learn. It’s through action,” the Alchemist told Santiago on their way to the Pyramids of Egypt to find the hidden treasure. With that in mind, I told myself that I would focus on studying Spanish. I used to sleep just four to five hours a day to give more time to studying. Now, four years later, I am now able to speak, read and write in Spanish and have the job that I’ve been dreaming.

What I have achieved so far started with only my simple but ardent desire to help my family. Like Santiago, I’ve discovered things along the way that I never would have seen and or learned had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a person like me to achieve.

As the Alchemist said, “All (of the obstacles) are forces that appear to be negative, but they actually show you how to realize your destiny. They prepare your spirit and your will, because there is one great truth on this planet: whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe.”

I always advise people around me — especially young people like my siblings, nieces and nephews — to not to be afraid of dreaming even if it may mean testing their persistence and courage. As Paulo Coelho himself said, “It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”

This week’s winner

Benjamin A. Vidallon is working as a Spanish translator in a multinational company. “People are normally flabbergasted whenever they find out what I do for a living most especially when I studied Spanish on my own and just attended a few hours of language training to learn the basics. I graduated as salutatorian in high school and cum laude in college at PUP-Taguig.”