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Essay On The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

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Often times in physical therapy school, when prompted with a research article, blog post or book, I tend to relate it back directly to my future in physical therapy practice. When reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, I felt it would be better suited to write this paper about life as a whole, rather than just one aspect of my own. I initially chose to read this book because my grandmother died of the same cause that Randy did, pancreatic cancer. Much like Randy, the doctors found her cancer had spread too much for them to be able to treat, so she knew she only had a limited time left on Earth. The Last Lecture speaks on the lecture that Randy gave at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the same college at which Randy went to graduate school and later became a professor in computer science, programming and specifically virtual reality. Lectures …show more content…

“The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.” Randy used this quote often throughout the book to remind the reader that your dreams won’t come to you; you have to chase them and show people that you genuinely care about achieving them. Some of the dreams he had were to float in zero gravity, which he did with the help of a NASA program where students could propose experiments on a plane that would go high up in the air then plummet towards Earth for a short time to simulate zero gravity. This opportunity was only for students, so he had to find a loophole. He contacted NASA saying that he would be resigning as professor and coming with the students as a “member of the media”. The NASA employee found this to be quite transparent, but Randy notes, “Have something to bring to the table, it will make you more welcome.” Randy then promised to get information out to more mainstream media outlets, making it a win-win for the two sides. He had found his way over the brick

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