‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho How This Book Helped Me Change My Life

PINAR TURGUT
3 min readApr 25, 2023

As a young woman, I felt torn between my own passion for computer science and my parents’ desire for me to study business. Wanting to please them and make them proud, I enrolled in a business program and began working for an insurance company during my college years. Although I found some success in the field, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing from my life.

It was during this time that I discovered “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho. The book’s message of following your dreams and pursuing your true calling spoke directly to my heart. I began to realize that I had been living my life for someone else’s expectations, rather than following my own path.

When I first decided to pursue my dream of studying computer science in the United States, I knew that it wouldn’t be easy. I had limited funds and my English wasn’t great, which made it tough to even consider applying to schools.

But I was determined to make it happen, so I spent months studying English and researching computer science programs. When I realized that I still didn’t have enough money to enroll in a full-time program, I decided…

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