Quest

“The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge.”

According dictionary.com, a quest is a search or pursuit made in order to find or obtain something.  Urban Dictionary puts it another way though; it isn’t just a journey, it’s a long tedious journey. It is also defined as a mission that could involve battle, but the outcome of the said mission is full of worth. In other words, it is more than just a journey- it would be considerably more treacherous than a mish or a trot, as it will probably entail passing several hardships before arriving at the destination.

Knowing several definitions of the word “quest” comes in handy when reading “It Is More Than a Quest” because the author gives us the five parts that are always involved in a quest- (1) a quester; (2) a place to go; (3) a stated reason to go there; (4) challenges and trials and; (5) the real reason to go. If you only know quest as a search or pursuit made in order to find or obtain something then part number 4 of the 5 parts that the author gives us doesn’t make sense. However if you know that a quest is a long, tedious journey then you would have no problem agreeing with the author’s 5 parts to a quest. This knowledge of different definitions of quest will certainly add depth to your reading.

Self-Knowledge: knowledge or understanding of oneself, one's character, abilities, motives, etc. (Dictionary.com) To know yourself means to know your passions, your goals, your hopes, your strengths, your weaknesses, and to know what you stand for as well as against.

When the author said “The real reason for a quest is always self-knowledge”, I believe that it was something more than just saying that when you go on a journey it’s to find out about yourself. I believe the author is saying that in life, everyone goes on a quest and the reason you go on that quest, whether the reason is stated or not, is to find out about yourself. I don’t think the author means our quest is to the grocery store to pick up a loaf Wonder Bread but I think that the author is implying that our quest is a thing we call life. Throughout life we are always trying to figure out more about ourselves and what we want to do in life.

“Forty-five-year-old men either have self-knowledge or they’re never going to get it, while your average sixteen-to-seventeen-year-old kid is likely to have a long way to go in the self-knowledge department.” (Page 3) Society puts pressure on us to know what we are going to do in life by the time we graduate college and they tend to look down upon people that are 45 and still have no idea what they are making out of this life. However, using the definition of quest as a LONG, tedious journey makes me feel like we don’t necessarily have to know what to do in life by a certain time because everyone’s definition of “long” is different. What may be long to me may not be long to you.  Knowing several definitions of quest and self-knowledge adds depth to our reading.