Blog Post #6

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

In Randy Pausch Last Lecture, he spoke about his childhood dreams and all of the things that he’s accomplished. This was his last lecture because he was only given 6 months to live due to tumors in his liver. He was very friendly and seemed to be feeling spectacular. He even did push ups on stage! He used PowerPoint, pictures and props to illustrate his points. His childhood dreams were: Being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals at the fair, and being a Disney Imagineer. He was able to experience zero gravity with a student group, but he had to pretend to be a journalist. He never played in the NFL, but he did play football and learned several valuable lessons from it. He learned that “when you screw up and no one says anything to you about it, then they've stopped caring.” This was one of my favorite quotes in the entire lecture. I am going to remember this quote throughout my entire teaching career. He did write for the World Encyclopedia, he became like Captain Kirk by being a leader in a virtual reality project, and he manage to win A LOT of bears. Pausch says that “brick walls are there for a reason; they let us prove how badly we want things. They’re there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.” By “brick walls” he means obstacles that everyone will run into at some point. If you can get through it, then it proves how badly you want what’s on the other side. He worked on a virtual reality program at Disney. It was an virtual Aladdin flying carpet ride. They asked him to become a permanent “imagineer”, but he said no and became a imangineer consultant. He asked the question “how can I enable the childhood dreams of others?” As teachers, we need to ask ourselves this question. When teaching, we need to help our students pursue their interest and show them that anything is possible. Pausch is a good example of someone who had dreams and followed them. He shows us that if you want to do something, there’s always a way. He was a brilliant man and he will be greatly missed.