A Lecture on Living from a Dying Man

Observational Article

I watch with curiosity as Randy Pausch, a professor of Carnegie Mellon reprises his last lecture on the Oprah Winfrey show. “The Last Lecture” is a tradition at his university where you impart your final lesson if you were to die. But for this man, this isn’t a hypothetical last lecture. He knows he will die, despite bravely battling pancreatic cancer for a while. He accepts his fate with grace which you can only admire. He states that this talk is not about death, but about life. In his short talk, he delivers so much wisdom.

If his talk were transcribed on to paper, I would probably take a highlighter pen and shade almost everything. His words and attitude illuminate.

There’s not a hint of in his talk except for the part where he shares that he has 3 little kids. He acknowledges that these are the cards that fate has dealt him with and has to make the most with the finite time he has. As my eyes are tearing up, he surprises the audience by demonstrating how robust he is through clapping push-ups. I’m wondering if this guy is for real? Even Oprah and Dr. Oz look at him with subtle astonishment.

In his talk, he focuses on how to live and achieve your childhood dreams. He reminisces about his childhood when men were landing on the moon. Even if that was decades ago, he reminds us that, “Anything is possible and we should never lose that spirit.”

One of the childhood dreams was being in the NFL. When looking at this geeky and lanky professor, I wouldn’t have made the connection. Sadly, he didn’t achieve this one, but he shares the lesson behind it: “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted.”

He also shares another dream of being an Imagineer, a magic maker at Disney. It began when he first took a trip to the theme park as a kid. He kept that dream and worked towards it. It took him 15 years upon graduating to become an Imagineer. He kept his rejection letters as inspiration. He concludes that “Brick walls are there for a reason, they let us prove how badly we want things.” Maybe I should start keeping my rejection letters and make it an album.

Aside from the talk being about childhood dreams, it’s also on how to love life. He shares that “If you live life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”

Randy Pausch admits that he didn’t make this lecture for the hundreds at his university. He only wrote it for his three kids. His kids are undoubtedly lucky to have him as a father. It saddens me knowing that the time they have with him is limited. I wish he could have lived longer and shared more. No doubt the world needs more people like him, but perhaps he’s continuing his work as an Imagineer above the clouds.