Blog Post #8

Wow! What an incredible man! Randy Pausch truly was a man who lived a full and fulfilling life.
In Pausch's Last Lecture I was only able to get a glimpse of the kind of character he was, but it was enough to be blown away as well as inspired. As a future educator there is so much to be learned from Randy Pausch, not only on how to teach, but more importantly, on how to LIVE a meaningful life that continues in your legacy.


In his lecture he begins by spilling the fact that his lifetime will soon come to an end due to cancerous tumors in his brain. He speaks about this tragedy lightly and doesn't seem dis-heartened or beat up at all by this fact. The way in which Pausch has obviously come to such an acceptance of his life's ticking clock automatically gives the audience such a great respect for him and opens them up to listen to him genuinely.

Pausch bases his lecture around his childhood dreams and he emphasizes how important it is to strive to achieve your dreams, in one form or another. Randy Pausch's dreams were to:

1. Be in Zero Gravity
2. Play in NFL
3. Author an article in the World Encyclopedia 
4. Be Captain Kirk
5. Win stuffed Animals at Fairs
6. Be a Disney Imagineer
7. Enable the Dreams of Others

With captivating stories Pausch shares how he was able to achieve/pursue his dreams successfully. Not only was Randy Pausch successful in striving for his dreams but, he created a legacy as an educator. He lived to help students put their creativity to use and dream bigger and achieve bigger things; that alone is a phenomenal thing. 

There are many things we can learn about teaching by watching Randy Pausch's Last Lecture, I feel that the most important would be to:

•  Choose a bigger goal that is not based on yourself to motivate your life and career.  
• Always create a fun atmosphere
• Entertain with props (Pausch brought in pictures, huge stuffed animals, a football, vest with arrows in it, Letterman jacket, etc.)

Pausch died at the age of 47 on July 25, 2008, just ten months after he gave his famous speech, it is always a saddening event to hear of a person dying at such a young age. With Pausch, his passing wasn't such a devastation because the amount of greatness he was able to achieve throughout his lifetime is unmeasurable. His legacy will continue to live on.