If you don't recall this story from a few years ago, Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The college had a series known as Last Lectures, where professors would give a lecture as if they were to die tomorrow. Except, when Randy Pausch decided to give his, he really did have a deadline looming.
I'm not usually a fan of non-fiction books. In fact, I tend to find them rather tedious and hard to get through. But this was different. I flew through this 206 page book in record time: 3 hours.
It was touching and moving. But most of all, it wasn't entirely about the fact that he was going to die. Randy wrote this as almost a companion to his Last Lecture. The book included more information that wasn't in that hour long lecture. He talks about his children, his wife, his experiences just getting to where he was.
He said that his main goal was to leave some sort of lasting advice for his three children.
But he left lasting advice for all of us. Things like writing a thank you note or not complaining. He wanted to pass along bits of wisdom that he had learned during his life, things that would help normal people in their everyday lives.
I cried a little bit, but not nearly as much as would be expected. I mostly found myself wondering how I could apply his wisdom to my own life.
Read the book, watch the lecture, live your life.
No comments:
Post a Comment