Schools all over the country, including mine, do this thing where they ask professors to give a last lecture. The idea is that you reflect on all the research you’ve done and how you’ve lived your life, and then try to communicate in a one hour lecture what is most important to you or what you most want other people to understand. Carnegie Melon professor Randy Pausch was invited to give a last lecture in 2007. The difference for him was that at 47, he was dying of pancreatic cancer, so this really would be his last lecture. The lecture, which focused on achieving childhood dreams, gained the attention of the national media and he went on to write a short book that touched on many of the same themes This past weekend, I read his book and then watched his last lecture (it’s available on You Tube).
I’d heard of The Last Lecture before, but had never delved in because I have an aversion to inspirational stories. Well, not inspirational stories in principle so much as books and movies and everything else designed to be inspirational. I guess I prefer my inspiration to surprise me, knock me off my feet–not announce its presence in big flashing letters. The other reason I was avoiding The Last Lecture was because I knew it would be sad; Professor Pausch died over a year ago, leaving a wife and three young children.
The lecture is not sad. It’s actually uplifting. But the book had me in tears. The worst was Professor Pausch’s heartbreak when he thought about his kids growing up without a father. Unlike most people who die too soon, he had time to prepare, but who can imagine hearing they have 3-6 months of good health left. I can’t say anything more about that, because it’s making me cry and I’m writing this from work.
The Last Lecture did not hit me on the level I think it does for a lot of other people. Despite my aversion to all intentional inspiration, it was inspiring, but in surprising ways. The lecture is structured around achieving your childhood dreams, but for as much as I thought about it, while a lot of my interests go back to childhood and as much as I am a dreamer, I never articulated any dreams as a child. When I was a kid, the future seemed so up in the air to me. I never could picture myself as an adult. I loved to write and put together my own books, but I never thought, “I want to publish a novel one day.” I liked a lot about school, even though I wasn’t very good at it, but I never dreamed of getting a PhD.
A major point in the lecture is that you’re going to hit walls in life, but you cannot let that stop you from achieving your dreams. I like that message, of course. Maybe I didn’t have easily articulated dreams as a child, but I have them now. Still, I can’t think of any experience I’ve ever had when I ran smack into a wall standing between me and my dreams. Not a lot of walls. Just really long roads full of a lot of hard work. So much hard work. I mean, really a lot of hard work.
What I took away from the lecture was not how to achieve your dreams (I think major personality differences put Professor Pausch and I on different tracks there), but that couldn’t-be-simpler message that you should let yourself dream in the first place. Really dream. I don’t mean make goals for how you’re going to make a lot of money and impress everyone. You can have those too, but we’re talking dreams. What you want more than anything. What will really make you happy. What will make you feel alive. And then take a lesson from Jack Johnson and don’t let your dreams be dreams. Try at least to make them a reality.
By far the most inspirational part of the book (more than the lecture) was hearing about Professor Pausch’s life as an academic, especially what he had to say about working with his students. I know that everyone experiences this, but grad school leaves so much time to ask, “What the hell am I doing with my life?” Because it’s not that you’re doing nothing with your life, it’s that you’re doing something incredibly particular and you wonder all the time if it’s really what you want to do. Just trying to keep up with the work load, it’s really easy for me to lose sight of why I thought this was a good idea. And studying theology has its own unique challenges, because it’s so incredibly personally challenging to constantly deconstruct everything you believe, never being able to replace it with anything more concrete than speculation.
The lecture is designed to be a head fake, meaning it seems to be teaching you one thing, but really it’s teaching you something else. For me, it had a head fake that even Professor Pausch didn’t intend. It’s meant to be about achieving your dreams, but really it reminded me of how much I want to teach, about how much I want to share with people all the things I’ve learned from others and discovered for myself.
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Randy’s lecture was so moving and inspiring. I didn’t cry until the end where he says he didn’t do it for the students, he did it for his kids.
Wow, just reading about his lecture/book is really inspiring. It can be challenging to dream, and you’re absolutely right: more often than not, there aren’t walls that keep us from our dreams but simply long roads filled with hard work. It’s about perseverance more than anything.
I think I should dream more.
When Pausch was still alive, Good Morning America talked to him several times and focused a bit on his last lecture. I remember watching it, being completely uplifted.
Some time after he died, I came across the book. It was hardcover. I debated spending $26 (eep!) on a book. But something told me to get it. I couldn’t put it down and it was the very first book to ever make me cry (I need the visualization of movies, I suppose, to cry). I sat there on a Friday night, after work, balling my eyes out on the couch as I read the last several pages. And it’s certainly a book I’d recommend to anyone. I don’t even know if I can put into words how it made me feel, what I thought, anything. It’s just the kind of thing I think people truly need to experience for themselves.
And so many say, “well I watched the lecture on YouTube,” but the book is WAY more than that, and I’m so glad to finally come across someone else who has read it! Ha. Glad you got so much from it.
what an amazing man. I really want to read his book now.
thanks for sharing!
wow. I really have to go read that book. my mom read it awhile back, at the height of the publicity about it, so I know where to find a copy! and I know she loved the book, too. I do like inspirational stories but for some reason never really wanted to read it. but you just changed my mind. thanks!
hope you are having a good weekend here in sunny California! :)
Thanks for sharing this – I’m watching the video now and I can’t wait to read the book, I’m looking for something to read, so great timing!
Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed the video immensely. Not sure I’ll end up reading the book, but I do have a long list of things to read already. Have a great weekend!
Ohhhhhh yes, I own this book. I think it is inspiring without being cheesy because of the kind of stand-up- man that Randy was. I always think about how he poured soda in his new car to teach his niece and nephew that material items were not important. Most definitely, the wall quote stuck with me too. I’m glad this touched you in a major, as it did me. I cried!! And I DON’T CRY often when I watch things.
I’m an oncology nurse, and my mentor at work gave me this book for my birthday last year. She wanted me to read it so that I would know a little bit better how our patients might feel. It made me cry at the same time that it gave me hope.
I bought the book but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. As for Randy’s last lecture, I just hope that I can inspire at least one person in my life as he has inspired thousands.
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