Last night, my daughter and I watched a video on YouTube called “The Last Lecture” which was given by Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch. We were both weeping by the end. We were both inspired as well. Over a million folks of all ages have watched this video, some finding inspiration, some finding schmaltz. ABC News (Diane Sawyer) ran a full hour story on Mr. Pausch this week which was also a tear jerker as it tracked his battle with terminal pancreatic cancer seven months after his now famous lecture.
Mr. Pausch also recently published a book called The Last Lecture that is getting favorable reviews across the country. Here’s some background on the book from the Detroit Free Press:
Pausch, a professor at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University, isn’t about dying, however. He’s about living. Living for his wife and their three young children. Living a good life as long as he can.
A now-famous lecture he gave at Carnegie in September has inspired millions who have viewed it on YouTube to follow his example. He hopes his new book, “The Last Lecture” (Hyperion, $21.95), published this week, will do the same. His publisher is banking on “Lecture ” to become the next “Tuesdays With Morrie,” the mega-best-seller by Free Press columnist Mitch Albom about another dying professor.
It all sounds terrible sad. Amazingly and to his enduring credit, it isn’t. My daughter took many of his suggestions to heart. Of course, she instantly asked to paint her room in response to his suggestion for parents to let their kids be creative and pursue their dreams (I consented!). She also took note about how Professor Pausch had gotten himself admitted to Carnegie Mellon for graduate school after having been rejected. You can imagine how relevant this was to a high school junior who is well aware that the high class of 2009 could face the highest rejection rate in the history of college admissions (the class of ’08 did).
I loved his description of a brick wall as simply a test of how badly you want something. I also found myself checking my own dream list just to make sure I hadn’t written too many of them off (and yes, there is still time for me to learn to surf!) So as you approach this weekend, perhaps it is time to review your personal dream list. If not now, when?
How inspiring Randy Pausch is! If you liked “The Last Lecture”, another fantastic memoir I just read and highly recommend is “My Stroke of Insight” by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Her TEDTalk video (ted.com) has been seen as many times as The Last Lecture I think, and Oprah did 4 shows on her book, so there are a lot of similarities. In My Stroke of Insight, there’s a happy ending though. It’s an incredible story! I hear they’re making it into a movie.