The Last Lecture

I finished Randy Pausch's book, The Last Lecture last night. You have probably heard of Randy. I heard of him through his youtube video. He was also on Oprah and a few weeks ago, shortly after he died, his interview with Diane Sawyer was on.

Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was given 3-6 months to live. He could have easily curled up into a ball, but he decided to live as much as he could in the time he had left. The college he taught at always had a "Last Lecture Series". A "if you only had a few months to live, what would you do?" kind of lecture. Well, he literally had a few months to live, so he wanted to give bits of advice to his students before he died.

He wrote his Last Lecture not only for his students, but for his kids. He has a 6 year old, a three year old and an 18 month old. He talked about how sad he was that they wouldn't have their dad around. So he video taped himself with the kids and giving bits of wisdom as much as possible. And he put tons of advice for them in his book.

Randy was a "Tigger". He said in his book that there are two types of people in this world- Tiggers and Eeyores. I am more of an Eeyore who desperately wants to be a Tigger. I'm just too lazy. But after reading his book, he has inspired me. Here are some of the things he talked about:

Achieve your childhood dreams. He often kept a crayon in his pocket, so he could take it out and smell it to remind him of being a kid and the dreams he had.

His parents were awesome. They let him dream. They let him paint and draw on his bedroom walls. They made him look things up in the dictionary or encyclopedia. They never coddled him or made him feel like he was "sooo wonderful". After he got his PhD, his mom introduced him by saying, "This is my son. He's a doctor, but not the kind that helps people."

He talked about his football coach and how hard he rode him in practice. Coaches now days can't get away with half the stuff this coach did. But it made him a stronger, better person. An assistant coach noticed the coach was riding Randy pretty hard, but told Randy, "That's a good thing. When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you."

Another thing Randy did that I think is awesome: He had just gotten a new convertible before he was married. He took his niece and nephew almost every weekend for fun little trips. Randy's sister was so worried that one of her kids was going to mess up Uncle Randy's new car. She kept reminding them to keep it clean. That's when Randy opened up a can of soda and poured it all over the back (cloth) seat. He didn't want them to feel bad if they did make a mess. And it's a good thing he did that, his nephew threw up in it the next weekend.

He talks about how brick walls are there for us just to see how badly we want something. Some people hit a brick wall and give up. Others will keep trying until they find a way over it, around it, or through it.

A piece of advice for his young daughter- when it comes to men, just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. I'll be passing that on to my three daughters for sure!

I highly recommend this book to you all. It is great! It is sad that Randy Pausch couldn't beat his cancer. But he was an optimist all the way through it. A metaphor he used that has really stuck with me is this: "My family is about to be pushed off a cliff. Now I can either curl up in a ball and watch them fall, or I can get to work sewing nets to cushion their fall."

He is blessed he had time to say goodbye.

I finished this book last night- one year later,to the day, that Melinda died. I thought of her and her family the entire time I read this book. I miss her. She was an optimist that would tell you how it was. I loved that about her. She didn't dance around things. I strive to be more like Melinda, Randy and Tigger.