Essay On The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

In the book, The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch is dying from pancreatic cancer and is only given a few months to live. With the time he has left, he makes it his priority to spend it wisely. Pausch states that he has an engineering problem and he’s going to do his best with his limited resources. His engineering problem is his health. Even though his body is failing him, he is going to push through and overcome the new obstacles he is facing in life. Pausch is also faced with “brick walls” but he doesn’t give up when things get tough. He uses the brick walls as an opportunity to show how badly he wants whatever is blocking his path. My “engineering problem” is being able to afford college for as long as I can. I’d say that my “brick walls”

“Hypothetically, if you knew you were going to die and you had one last lecture, what would you say to your students?” That is how Professor Randy Pausch, from Carnegie Mellon, began his last lecture, a speech entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” while in fact he was dying of Pancreatic Cancer. He knew he only had months left to live and put together this last lecture to read to his students. His lecture focuses in on points such as the importance of: making sincere apologies, not whining, being gracious and being humble. To stress his thoughts and views on life and following one’s dreams, Randy Pausch used a great amount of repetition, metaphors, allusion, humor, ethos, and pathos in his last lecture.

In Randy Pausch 's "Last Lecture," Randy discusses how he achieved all of his childhood dreams throughout his life and how he helped others achieve their dreams. Often times, childhood dreams are forgotten due to life stressors, other opportunities and interests that come along and, ultimately, believing that those childhood dreams are unachievable. However, this was not the case for Randy Pausch. Randy created a list of things that he desired to experience throughout his lifetime, and through persistency, acceptance and some modification, he was able to complete his list. Similar to many children 's "being an astronaut" dream, Randy had a couple dreams that seemed impossible. These seemingly impossible dreams on Randy 's list included: "being in zero gravity," "playing in the NFL," and "being Captain Kirk." While Randy never received the opportunity to play football for the NFL, his understanding and lessons learned from his football experiences made up for this shortcoming. Nonetheless, Randy was able to conquer all of his other dreams. With each dream Randy discusses, he explains each "brick wall" he hit along his way and what he did to get around these walls.

The lecture has affected me personally by letting me learn from some of Pausch’s past experiences. Pausch says, “The inspiration, and the permission to dream is huge.” This quote made me learn that people need to have the ability to think of what kind of dreams they want to inspire to

If I had made a list of my child hood dreams, I admit, it wouldn’t be very impressive. I never wanted to be a firefighter or a policeman. I never had the urge to be a millionaire, and I never even thought of being a G.I Joe or Army Man. If you could see my list, you would see only two words scribbled down in that chicken scratch hand writing of mine. But only one of those words would follow me out of that first grade class room and stick with me to this present day.

Dave Isay strongly connects with his readers in the “Dreamers” section of Callings. Adventure and purpose surround this section especially with the bridge-tender, street astronomer, and the NBA referee story. Defining a dreamer can be determined in many ways. As said before, adventure and purpose are the main components of a dreamer. The information gained from this section is that dreamers have this sense of hope and passion for the calling they pursue no matter what it is. Individuals such as Herman Heyn lived out their dream by performing certain tasks. Herman made a living by working as a street corner astronomer and never worked a day in his life because he

What would you do if you had limited time left to live? Many people take life for granted but when their life is suddenly compressed into a matter of weeks left, they soon realize the beauty of life and how they lived it. In response to his restricted time left caused by pancreatic cancer, writer Randy Pausch argues that life should be lived to the fullest in his book The Last Lecture.He effectively builds his claim through the use of pathos, allusions to literature, and metaphors.

“Brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” This was the mantra Randy Pausch lived by in his terminating life. In his book, which I learned the quote from, he talked about many challenges he overcame throughout his life. The largest obstacle I have had to overcome is the challenge of being a part of many extracurricular activities while maintaining above average grades in my rigorous schedule throughout the years.

In the novel, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow, Pausch recalls painting his bedroom walls after the permission of his parents. If my parents gave me permission to paint my bedroom walls, I would first paint on my favorite quotes on one wall. They could be quotes from my favorite books, movies, or important historical figures. For example, Mahatma Gandhi’s quote, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” is a quote that I have to remember to follow when I am afraid to become a leader and change what needs to be changed in life. Basically, the quotes would be up on the wall just so I can look at them everyday for inspiration, or when I need them when I hit rock bottom. In addition, I would paint on all the ideas and hobbies

Instead of talking in depth on computer sciences or some other academic topic, Professor Randy Pausch spoke from the experience of an average guy, telling stories of his own personal life and experiences in order to focus his lecture “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” on a potential life lesson for his students. Pausch uses the common ground of having childhood dreams in order to relate to his audience. With this use of pathos, more of a personal and emotional connection between him and his audience was

Making everyday count shapes life’s journey by helping you gain a positive outlook and making life more enjoyable. If you make the conscious decision to live your life to the fullest, you will find that by working hard and remaining positive, life will seem better. In The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, the author emphasizes the importance of making everyday count and working hard to achieve your dreams, because you never know when your life can be taken from you. After Pausch was diagnosed with life terminating cancer, he made the decision to remain positive and write a final lecture about achieving your dreams and embracing life instead of letting his prognosis negatively affect him. In The Last Lecture, Pausch shares how he was able to make

For example, when my grandmother was young, she used to dream about being surrounded by a loving family. She was an orphan. She often tells me stories about how she would lie awake at night dreaming about just that. Many kids in her orphanage used to tell her that none of them were ever going to have a life like that “Why would we?” they said, “can you not see not even our parents wanted us!” Despite all the harsh words, she kept on dreaming and overcame all her obstacles and has reached her goal. Even though your goals might seem impossible, if you dream big you might get just that.

Randy explains how he was a know-it-all to his sister, Tammy, and tends to say what he’s thinking and what he believes. Randy learned this lesson twice. The first time is when he was young and his sister, Tammy threw his metal lunch box in a muddy puddle. The second time was when he was older. Randy was on a walk with his professor and he told him “Randy, it’s such a shame that people perceive you as being so arrogant, because it’s going to limit what you’re going to be able to accomplish in life.”(Pausch 75) The lesson that Randy learned helped him throughout the

The Last Lecture began as a good-bye speech, made by Randy Pausch, a 47 year old professor diagnosed with terminal cancer. His speech at Carnegie Melon University became an Internet phenomenon. It has also been published as a book. I really thoroughly enjoyed his Last Lecture speech. He had a lot of good talking points and brought up some new perspectives, or ways of looking at life situations that got me thinking. He talked a lot about his dreams when he was a child and was very humorous and inspirational throughout his speech. He also had a lot of quotes that I really enjoyed and they are what I want to focus on.

The Last Lecture is equally a telling of how Randy Pausch lived his life and a guide on how others should live theirs. Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon and gave his last lecture after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. However, this lecture was not filled with weepy memories of his family or things he wished he could change. Instead, it was a recount of how he was able to achieve all of his childhood dreams and steps for anyone to do the same. Almost everything Randy says in his lecture are extremely quotable words to live by. He touches upon some of the most fundamental themes that everyone can understand, like the benefits of a positive attitude and how to overcome obstacles to achieve your dreams.