"The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow

"The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
2008, Hyperion
ISBN: 978-1-4013-2325-7

I would imagine it to be a very unusual situation for a person to go through life and not know another human being. Even if you are a stick-in-the mud old grouchy person, somewhere along the way you’re going to have contact with somebody.

It is in this contact, however brief it might be, that we teach and learn from each other.

I just learned a whole lot from Randy Pausch that I know is going to help me in how I live the rest of my own life. I read, “The Last Lecture” which is literally the last lecture Randy gave before he passed away in July, 2008, of pancreatic cancer. I also watched this lecture awhile back on YouTube and have placed it below this review if you’d care to have a look. It’s an hour long. It’s worth every second that you spend watching.

I was so impressed with Randy’s attitude toward life even before he learned he had cancer. I was even more impressed with how he chose to live his life after he received the news that he had 3 to 6 months to live.

I can learn from that attitude. Through reading his book I was made stronger. I am not, by any means, facing the horrible lessons he and his family had to learn, but I do have my own tough moments. I can come through them more easily having seen what he did with his tough lessons. I can.

Getting stuck in a rut is not fun. Many times a person doesn’t even know that they are in a rut. But, if you can have a hero, somebody to emulate, no matter how unrealistic that desire is you have a dream. The dreams of childhood are the dreams that sometimes die, but sometimes those dreams can follow a person into their adulthood. Randy is somebody who, as a respected teacher, a person in a position of responsibility, a grown up, mature and solid citizen said to me, “It’s okay to have a dream from childhood come true.” It’s nice to have somebody on your side and even though I never met Randy Pausch I feel that I know him now.

Seeing as how this is a book review site I want to give ringing praise for, “The Last Lecture”. I also want to say thank you to Randy Pausch for taking the time to share with so many people his own last words.