Personal Legends

I recently reread a childhood favorite of mine, The Alchemist by Paula Coelho. It tells of a young Arab boy and the search for his personal treasure located near the pyramids of Egypt. Along the way, he encounters mankind's demons in the form of thievery and war, and also its greatest gifts like education, friendship and love. This blending of trials and tribulations while in pursuit of his treasure culminates into what Coelho calls the boy’s “Personal Legend.”

Once I finished The Alchemist, I immediately asked myself the question I’ve wrestled with over the past year, albeit without this terminology.

What’s my Personal Legend?

In other words, what’s my mission? Why do I exist?

I’ve never had a concrete answer. I can’t say, “Oh yeah, I want to be a cardiac surgeon and save lives.” A singular option has never presented itself to me.

But I’m O.K. with that. I believe my possibilities are endless, so limiting myself to one outcome would be a disservice to all. Additionally, if that singular goal never came to fruition, then thoughts of regrets and undelivered promises would haunt me forever.

Like you, I get the questions all of the time.You know, the ones from nagging aunts, uncles, or first date prospects about where we see ourselves in 10 years. If you’ve asked me this question before, I’ve probably answered with something like this:

I’ve never stayed up late at night dreaming about any specific path. Throughout my entire life, if I’ve ever only known one thing about myself, it’s that I love performing for people. First, I performed in front of raucous parents and students on the baseball fields and basketball courts of my youth. Then, I roamed the front of classrooms giving presentations on historical figures like Voltaire and Friedrich Nietzsche. For years I poured my emotions out in choir halls, practice rooms, living rooms, showers, streets, and later, on stages. In college, I wrote for the newspaper and talked on the radio and appeared on student television. Now, I write for you.

I’ve spent the last 20 years harnessing and improving upon the vast array of communication skills that run in my blood. With those skills, I’ve mobilized people to action and driven others to tears. I’ve evoked love, hate, curiosity and anger. Taken together, all of this is what will drive me for the rest of my life.

That’s why it’s my Personal Legend.

Unlike the cardiac surgeon example, my Personal Legend permits room for interpretation. It allows some space for deviations and miscalculation, missteps that one must confront en route to realizing one’s Personal Legend. Acts taken to pursue my Personal Legend can come in many forms. At the moment, I write this blog and help produce radio shows that entertain people. Unfortunately I’m not the person directly providing the entertainment, but I help facilitate it. If I felt I were not playing a meaningful role in delivering people valuable content, then I'd have to leave Connecticut.

But in the future, the road to fulfilling my Personal Legend will be filled with exciting creative endeavors. Maybe I’ll write books one day or start a podcast or film a documentary. I might speak in schools and concert venues and coffee shops about harnessing one's creative spirit and how to create something meaningful out of it. I'm confident the right opportunities and the right people will surface at the right time. Because as Coelho repeatedly says in The Alchemist, “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

It’s a lifelong pursuit, my Personal Legend. I don’t know if I’ll ever reach a point where I can definitively say I’ve achieved it because one cannot measure my Personal Legend; it's not tangible. That's O.K., because I know I'll have a hell of a time changing lives along the way. And that's good enough for me.

Troy Farkas is an aspiring writer. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @tfark04. Message him if you need help identifying and achieving your own Personal Legend.