Randy Pausche's last lecture

First off, Randy Pausche is an amazing speaker and person. He should be an inspiration to each and every person. This video was his "last lecture" because he was given 3-6 months to live due to 10 tumors in his liver. His lecture was based on childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and how you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. Even with a deadly illness he still seems to look on the bright side of things and see the good in everybody. My favorite thing he said in his lecture was that if you wait long enough you will see the good in everybody. You may have to wait years to see it, but everybody has some good.

His first point was his childhood dreams and how he achieved each and everyone of them through hard work and perserverance. He talked about how when he was a child he was always smiling. There was not one single picture of him as a child not smiling. I think that says something about his character. A few of his childhood dreams were being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, being captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals, being a disney imagineer, and being an author of the world book encyclopedia. As for the being in zero gravity, he achieved it. He put together a project with some of his students and they were allowed to fly on this jet plane called the "vomit comet." It gives about 25 seconds of zero gravity. For most people this dream would only be a dream, but he made it a reality.

As for enabling other peoples dreams he was a master. He started this thing called The Dream Fulfillment Factory. It allowed 50 students from all different departments of the college to come together and make virtual reality. He gave them 2 weeks to make a project. After those two weeks he was blown away. The students surpassed his expectations by far. This goes to show you to never set the bar too low. After this happened the project grew and grew. It has given students guaranteed jobs.

The roles of his parents, mentors and students played a big part in his life. His dad fought in WWII and won the bronze star for valor, and in 50 years of marriage his wife never knew. That goes to show what kind of person he is. His mentor was Andy Van Dam. He was described as a mythical creature. If it weren't for him he wouldn't have gone to graduate school. One thing he said in his lecture was in life you can either be a tigger or an eeyore, its your choice. I thought that was a really cool comparison to life.

All in all this was an awesome speech. It really made me think about life. I am a big beleiver in karma and so is he. He said "you can't get there alone" meaning if you do good to others, it will come around to you. He also said tell the truth, be earnest, apologize when you screw up, and focus on others, not yourself. Those are words that everybody needs to live by. I would definately recommend this speech to anybody.