Blog Post #7

Before beginning this lecture I was very nervous I wouldn’t be able to keep my attention on the video long enough. I first noticed how many views this video had and then knew that it wasn’t going to be a boring video by any means. This video had almost 14 million views, now that’s impressive.

In Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture Achieving Your Childhood Dreams he first starts out by saying you can’t change the cards you are dealt. He begins the lecture very up beat and happy. Pausch announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer and he only had a short time to live. He made it clear in the very beginning of the video that he wasn’t going to let his situation discourage him and just wanted to really teach people how to live their lives to the fullest. He knew he couldn’t change his situation, he decided he would deal with it, make the best of it, and learn to make in impact in the short time he had.

Pausch begins the lecture as if he really wanted to make an impact on peoples lives. One of his first dreams he talks about was playing for the NFL. Although he didn’t fulfill that dream he says he got more out of that dream in not accomplishing it than he got out of any other dream. He said what he got out of trying to achieve that dream was more valuable. That is a very important statement to me. Although you can’t achieve your dream, you can still learn and achieve so much more even if you just try.

Although some of his dreams were very silly like winning stuffed animals, he was still very proud of that dream and enjoyed sharing all of his stuffed animal experiences with the audience. Pausch also states in the video the meaning of brick walls and that they are there for a reason. He wanted to become an Imaginer for Disney and was immediately turned down. That was his first brick wall he had faced with his dreams, but he didn’t get discouraged. He stated that these brick walls let us prove how badly we want things. I agree with Randy Pausch on that, if we are once turned down for anything it makes us strive even harder to get what we wanted. Although Mr. Pausch was turned down at first, he finally was able negotiate a contract with John Snotty and got to work on the Aladdin project. Just like Mr. Pausch said, “Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you.” He never gave up on that dream and finally was able to fulfill it.

Mr. Pausch next talks about wanting to enable the dreams of others. Pausch began a course named Building Virtual Worlds. He was blown away by the 1st assignment given to his students. He stated he could have easily given all of his students As in the very beginning of the class, instead he told them that they could do better so that he could see what else they would bring to the table. After each assignment they continued to impress him just by his encouragement to do a better job.

Randy Pausch's last lecture was incredibly inspirational. He wanted his students as well as his two young children to live out their dreams just how he was able to. I feel that his last lecture will be one that will be remembered for years to come. I never thought that I would watch a You-tube video that I really felt like it was well worth sharing with someone till Mr. Pausch’s Last Lecture.