Blog Post 7

On September 18, 2007, Randy Pausch stepped in front of a crowd of about 400 people to give a lecture on “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” This lecture later became known as “Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.” He tells the audience about the cancer that is eating him alive and will claim his life within the next few months.
If you had to choose what your last lecture would be on before you died, what would it be? Randy Pausch makes many valid points that make you realize how much we take life for granted. He want’s people to see the value in their life and try to make them appreciate what they have.

At the beginning of the video Randy tells us he was given three to six months to live because he has ten tumors in his liver. His favorite saying was, “You can’t change the cards that are dealt, we just have to play the hand that we’re given.” He begins to reflect back on to how happy his childhood was. He said that every memory and picture that he has of his childhood was when he was happy. No matter what is thrown at him, he has a way of never giving up. He then starts speaking about how he has dreams of becoming a player in the NFL, being in a zero gravity, meeting Captain Kirk, working for Disney, and winning tons of stuffed animals.

After reflecting on all of these dreams he then goes in to detail about each one and gave a reason for them. He says that not making it to the NFL worked out better for him. He talks about how not fulfilling his dream was better because he got more out of life that way than he would have, otherwise. On the first day of his football practice, Coach Graham didn’t bring any footballs to practice. He said that by his coach doing this, it helped him to realize the fundamentals of football. He then goes on to say that he realizes fundamentals are one of the most important things in life. He quotes, “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” This statement couldn’t hold any truer. I think I have reached the age where I am wise enough to know that you can’t always get what you want. As I have gotten older I have realized how grateful I am for what I do have. I have a family that would give me the world and friends that support me now matter what. I think that it is the important things in life that matter most.


Later in the video he talks about how he has dreams of meeting Captain Kirk. He acknowledges that Captain Kirk may not have been the wisest person on the ship,, but he was what you would call a leader. He said that by watching Captain Kirk he realized what leadership was and how important it could be in life. He says being smart is not always everything. He became a leader in his own life and fulfilled his dream of becoming his own “Captain Kirk.” He also became a day-a-week consultant for Disney as an imaginer. This lasted for about ten years of his life. He said that his memories of his childhood were great but he wanted to enable others to have the same great memories as well. Being a professor was a fantastic way to enable childhood dreams. He talks about one of his students who dreamed his whole life of working on Star Wars Films. This particular student that he talks about goes on to work on all three of the Start Wars films. Randy also created a course called “Building Virtual Worlds.” He created this course by drawing fifty students from different departments all over the university. He chooses teams randomly with four people per team. They worked on projects of all different types and eventually the course became a big hit. It made everyone want to become more involved. He said that audience reactions were such a big impact on the students’ drive to do well. He also did this for ten years.

Lessons Learned was the last discussion of the video. He says that there has to be a reason that people achieve their dreams. Parents and mentors can have a huge impact on a child’s own fulfillment of his/her dreams. That is a reason that I have chosen education as a major. I want to be able to impact children the way he impacted me through this video. “Never Give Up!!” This was one of the most important quotes in the entire video. He never gave up and he wants people to know if they choose the path of never giving up they can enjoy the same success and happiness that he did.

Randy Pausch’s video has become a phenomenon. There is now a book out based on all of the ideas in this lecture. Randy lost his battle to pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008. His legacy will continue to live on through his “last lecture” as well as all of the people he has impacted throughout his lifetime.