Blog Post #6

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science and human computer interaction, and design at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch gave his last lecture about Achieving Your Childhood Dreams just a year before he passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2008. He begins his upbeat lecture by introducing the "Elephant in the room", he does this by spending just a few minutes discussing his pancreatic cancer. He tells the audience that he is still very much in good health, and he shows this by doing pushups. I thought that was a great way to begin his lecture and to get rid of any issues or distractions the audience may have. He then lists what he will be addressing in his lecture and what he will not be addressing. He wants the audience to know that he will not be talking about cancer, things more important this childhood dream:his wife and kids, spirituality and religion (his death bed conversion). He tells the audience he will be talking about childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons learned:how you can achieve your dreams of enable the dreams of others.

Randy Pausch was entertaining, energetic and upbeat throughout the entire video. Even though he had a terminal diagnosis, he still had a positive outlook on life and a glow on stage. I felt like I could watch him over and over, and I often found myself re-listening to different parts of the video. I am pleased that I was assigned to this video because of how inspiring Randy Pausch is. Through his lecture he gives many individuals the courage to achieve anything they set their mind too. He talks about his dreams and how he achieved some of them and the ones he didn't achieve allowed doors to open onto other opportunities. He achieved being in zero gravity, he dreamed to be in the national football league, authorized an article in the world encyclopedia, he dreamed of being captain Kirk, he won A LOT of stuffed animals, and becoming a Disney imagineer. He has a lot of inspiring quotes but the one he put the most emphasis on was the one about "Brick Walls". "Brick walls are there for a reason. They let us prove how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who do not want them badly enough. They keep all the other people out." I believe this is telling us that we are going to encounter hurdles that will try to prevent us from achieving our goals and dreams. Whatever it is that is in the way, as long as you truly want it, you can achieve dreams and reach your goals. Pausch talks about how sometimes you have to take a different roads to get to your dreams but they are always reachable if you want it bad enough.

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want". This is such a powerful and inspiring quote. This quote is a good one to incorporate into daily lives. In most cases the first time we go after something, we do not always get what we want or it sometimes turns out not as planned. We do not always get what we want, but during that journey we learn and experience new things.We learn that we should probably re route our journey. Also, when we are trying to figure things out, we do not always find the answer but find out new information that we never knew.

My favorite part of Randy Pausch lecture was about weather or not you are a tigger or an eeyore. He firmly states that you must be very aware of the tigger/eeyore debate. He says you should NEVER lose the child-like wonder because it drives us. You should always find the fun in everything you do. I need to find the fun in everything because I sometimes focus on the negatives in life and that is no way to live, especially with life being so sort. I want to learn as much as I can, be able to say what I want to say, and teach how I want to teach to get my points across. I want to always remember to have fun in all I do and keep a positive outlook on life and my future as an educator. I know I will take these wonderful skills Pausch as spoken of in his video with me through the rest of school and in my career.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes of Randy Pausch: "Tell the truth." "Be earnest." "Apologize when you screw up." "Focus on other people, not yourself." "Find the best in everyone"... These are wonderful quotes that I want to post in my planner or on my bathroom mirror so I can remind myself of simple yet forgetful statement I should live by.

Randy Pausch enlightened me and taught me many new ways of learning, becoming the best individual I can be, and achieving my dreams no matter what I encounter. I like that he said you should always try to be good at something so it makes you valuable. I believe he is an amazing teacher, and a profound individual. I want to be a dedicated teacher and hopefully spread the positivity and motivation onto my future students. We only have one life here on earth so we must embrace it and take any positive opportunity that happens to come our way because it might just change your life, for the BEST!