warning: an extremely boring blog written only for myself

i just finished reading 'the alchemist' by pablo coehlo. it is very refreshing to not read books for school, marketing, or whatever. the book is very well written and it was recommended by my strategy professor. why? because it is about a boy who struggles to acheive his 'Personal Legend,' or in other words, calling. he learns to recognize 'Omens,' to his heart, and that unless you take chances with your life, you will never go anywhere, even when all the Omens you see are telling you to go for your dream. as the book says, 'when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.' it's just up to you whether to take the bold step or not.

there are a lot of quotes from the book that i want to just write for myself. but i'm too lazy.

but 'the alchemist' really challenged and made me think about my life from a new perspective... what my Personal Legend is. (ironically, i am also reading "purpose driven life" by rick warren and they complimented each other so well. it was definitely a synergy.)

it reminds me of how i wanted to be an MD for most of my life. because i had an exceptional memory when i was a baby, my dad always thought i would be a good doctor. being a doctor was really the only profession i dreamed of when i was a kid (being a ninja or buck rogers really doesn't count). my mom was a nurse so i always played with her stethoscope and i loved to wear my dad's labcoat. i was even chosen to play a doctor in our senior skits in high school. no other profession really ever entered my mind for the first 19 years of my life.

even when i really enjoyed creating websites or creating slips announcing the next NHS or asian club meeting in creative ways (which only meant using every font i had on my mac), the thought of becoming a doctor never strayed from my mind. i loved being creative and was pretty good at it... a lot better than bio i would learn in college.

then college came... and my disdain of organic chemistry and peptides and amino acids... and a lot of other factors...which all led to poor grades. another Omen, but this time very loud. at the time, i was writing emails to my church in creative ways to announce bus times and (most) people really enjoyed it. it finally hit me, that marketing was where my calling was. i loved it, i was good at it, i found my Personal Legend.

i immediately tried to find ways to test and see if marketing is where i wanted to be. click2asia.com started promoting at our school, i signed up, and started a berkeley message board. the only post that i read was "n1elsen-netrat1ngs is looking for good people! e-mail me!" it was some random guy who was trying to get referral bonuses... and i responded. for some reason, my resume got passed on to the product marketing department. i had no marketing experience, but i was called in for an interview. i even had to spray my hair black because i had my hair streaked yellow at the time and i was so afraid it would start dripping off my head onto the conference table. i got the internship. 'when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.'

i learned very quickly what corporate america was like, what product marketing was, and that i belonged. after that summer, i quickly interviewed for and joined the amer1can advert1s1ng federat1on berkeley chapter case competition team and our team became regional champions. another sign of how i was good at marketing and that i loved it. i worked part-time after my internship ended and was supposed to get a fulltime offer after i graduated. then they had layoffs and i was back to nothing. no job, stuck in california... and i fell back to my degree. 'maybe it's a sign... maybe i was destined to be in bio.' i interpreted the bump in the road completely the wrong way. i got a job in biotech doing genomic research, and was really unhappy. i met great friends, but was never very good at experiments. actually, i sucked. my boss later told me so after i went into marketing. however, they found out that i was good at making presentations and made all the presentations for my group during offsites and other meetings - which is when it was confirmed that i belonged in marketing. i needed to get back into marketing, and what helped was when the company went bankrupt. i knew that i needed to get into b-school since i had no real knowledge, and getting laid off was actually a good thing. and now, i finished my first year with an awesome internship and i am very happy. 'the alchemist' really made me re-examine my life and thus, gave me the satisfaction and confidence that what i am doing right now is where i belong. my personal legend and my responsibility. and as the book says that 'to realize one's Personal Legend is a person's only real obligation,' i feel like i have really found it this time. and with that obligation and new chapter of my life, the book reminds me that i still can't forget my responsibilities, which are to honor God and be a good person. 'a shepherd may like to travel, but he should never forget about his sheep.'

i think i'll stop there, but there is a lot of other topics the book covers that really struck deep inside of me.