Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

The Story of Randy Pausch's last lecture is a sad and yet uplifting tale. The Maryland born Professor attended Brown University where he got his bachelors in computer science and then attended Carnegie Mellon University where he would get his PH.D in computer science. Doctor Pausch would then go off to be a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and be the creator of the Alice software project which is a computer animations software on Java. All these accomplishments are very impressive indeed, but this man's life would be cut short once he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer.

When I found out that Professor Pausch was giving a speech after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, I thought this would be a very solemn and depressing speech to the students. However I was very surprised to see Professor Pausch cracking jokes and being humorous in the face of his own death. The speech was entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". The main objective of the speech was to encourage people to achieve their childhood dreams. He goes on to describe his own childhood and how "every picture of me had a smile". After telling the crowd of how he achieved his dreams of becoming a "Disney Imagineer" he goes into the dreams of others.

Doctor Pausch then tells a story of a student he had whose dram was to be part of the new Star Wars movies. This was a moving story because Doctor Pausch helped this young man achieve his goals and made it seem that every one's childhood dreams could be within reach. The last part of his speech was him talking about a project he ran with some students and how he was helping them achieve their utmost potential in life. The speech ends with a standing ovation and it was very clear that everyone in the room was moved and effected highly from Pausch's speech.

This speech to me was very inspirational. Thanks to men like this people everywhere can mentally prepare themselves to achieve their childhood goals. I myself was moved from this speech not only because i was inspired by his story, but because he related to everyone and made everyone seem as equal. He lightened the already tense mood with some jokes and quips and this I thought was in good taste. I encourage everyone to watch this video because it is very inspirational and moving for all people who want to achieve their dreams. To watch his video, click HERE