Journal: The Sensible Sentence

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

- Paulo Coelho

    

        The first time that I saw this beautiful sentence was in Grade 9 when I read the Chinese edition of The Alchemist. The sentence caught my attention and straightway I gained insights into what is happening in my routine life. It was the most difficult time when I was preparing for Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students (CAP會考). This is an important examination for the Grade 9 students who are studying in Taiwan because we cannot continue our study in an ideal high school without a great mark in the examination. The examination was the first challenge in my life, so I told myself that everything would be going well if I tried my best to do it. This sentence did help me cope with the stress of overloading study materials that took much of my energy into late adolescence.

    Surprisingly, this sentence rang a bell in Canada while my English teacher was reading the same book to us. However, this time, it appeared in English rather than the first time I met it. Being expressed in a different language, this sentence was still inspiring me and encouraged me to do my best to achieve goals even in the most challenging situations. For example, there were a lot of English terms that I didn’t understand in Chemistry during the first few weeks. Although I had learned most of the materials in Taiwan, the new environment where the study was taking place did make me experience that Chemistry was almost a new subject. I wanted to give up, but I recalled a key point that I had learned from that sentence. Specifically, there are always some solutions to sort out the problem that you are facing in a crisis, thus do not hesitate to seek support from the people around you. Quite different from my previous experience in Taiwan, I began to ask for support from the teachers and classmates. They were friendly and provided prompt responses to deal with the problems that I encountered, just like the sentence I heard in English class. 

    Again, I learned from this experience, if I really want to achieve something, just follow my heart and go forward to face it. Don’t need to worry about the consequences. I will accomplish the things I want and succeed at the end of the story.