The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

“The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it (James Bryce). If measured by the rule of the quote, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow has tremendous worth. Randy Pausch, a professor dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” at Carnegie Mellon in 2007. In the book, he reflects upon the lessons of his life experiences mentioned in the lecture. The lessons addressed ways to lead a fulfilled life. At first, his experiences seemed to be entertaining stories from his past, but as he progressed through each chapter, I began to realize the mentoring quality of the stories. From the lessons, I carried away invaluable advice. While it would be difficult to visit and elaborate upon every lesson, there were three that were most memorable to me: the importance of obstacles in our life, how honesty is a better character builder than false praise, and the uselessness of complaining.

The Last Lecture is a small book, only a mere 206 pages, split up into six parts, with chapters that span from 3-5 pages. Rather than working off of one main story or memories for the entire book, the author wrote various parts with different themes to each part. As for the chapters in those parts, the author provides different anecdotes from his childhood/adulthood that relate to the main idea of the part. For example, in part three, “Adventures ... And Lessons Learned,” the author provides an instance where he intentionally spilled soda in his clean convertible car while a trip with his niece and nephew. He wanted to show then that it is okay to make messes or mistakes. The second lesson he wanted to show them is, people are far more important

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 place where Pausch was giving his lecture was in a lecture hall at Carnegie Mellon. He was giving the speech to many people that he knew but also many others that he did not know. He was in front of a crowd of many people and in a perfect context for his last lecture. You also feel as if he is actually just speaking to you throughout the whole lecture.

Randy Pausch was determined to finish his last lecture for his kids. He was determined to leave a little bit of himself for his children, so they could see what type of person he was and so they would learn the lessons he would have thought them throughout their lives. With his determination, Pausch was able to get many of his childhood dreams and more accomplished. He lived his life to the fullest and I would bet that if he hadn’t done so, we wouldn’t have had the honor and opportunity to learn about his life. I can relate to his determination, but only on a small scare. I have a passion for cooking and I am determined to follow that passion by any means possible. I have made changes to my life and education to support that life, but there have been some situations in my life that I’ve had to learn to adapt and deal with, to continue my dream. You could say I had to be resilient.

“Build your own life...find your opportunity, and always be sexy.” The general claim made by Aston Kutcher’s in his speech at the Teen Choice Awards is that to be successful you have to make your own life, work hard, and be thoughtful. He uses ethos and rhetorical devices to support his claim. His purpose is to inform in order to be inspiring. He establishes a serious but casual tone for his audience of mostly teens.

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.

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

“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 his closing, he states that his whole speech was a pair of “head fakes”; The final one confronted his audience with the fact that everything he had just told them was not actually meant for them; Instead, it was meant for his kids as a lasting legacy for them to remember him by. It is rare that a speaker would give a speech not specifically intended for his audience, but in this case, Pausch used this to his advantage to create an even more intensified closing. This single phrase makes audience members reply his entire speech over again, with a new sense of context at

In The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, the reader learns about Mr. Pausch himself. The reader learns about his past, present, and his future. They also learn about what type of person Mr. Pausch was. The most important part that Mr. Pausch wanted his audience to remember his experiences that we may face, his advice, and his family.

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.