Blog Assignment # 7

After watching Dr. Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture, I came to think of him as a man of great determination. I was in shock when he showed to scans of his ten tumors that he had in his liver! He seemed to be a perfectly healthy man and to show that he was in better shape than most of the people in the room he did a few push-ups. He never gave up on his dreams even though he had many hardships in his life and as he said “Don’t bail, the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap.”

            He began his lecture by telling the audience about his childhood dreams, which included being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals, and being a Disney Imagineer. The amazing thing is, he achieved all of them! Except for playing in the NFL, but he says that what he did get to do when he was younger was much more important in his life than playing in the NFL. His childhood football coach taught him that when you screw up and no one critiques you, that means that they have given up on you and that is not a good thing, fortunately for him his coach made sure to tell him when he did something wrong so that he would be able to correct it.

            Another one of his childhood dreams was being in zero gravity. This was a difficult dream to accomplish, but that did not stop Dr. Pausch. There was a competition being held where a group of students could win a ride in the “Vomit Comet”, which is a type of plane that is used to train astronauts and allows them to experience 25 seconds of weightlessness. When telling his story on how he achieved this dream he uses this quote “Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.” There were several difficulties in achieving this certain dream, for one, when his team won the competition he was extremely excited until he was told that faculty was not allowed to participate in riding the “Vomit Comet”, but like always he showed his perseverance. He learned that faculty wasn’t allowed, but that the press was. So he found a way to get a press badge and in the end he was able to participate.

            In conclusion, this video has shown me that even in tough times we must never give up! Dr. Randy Pausch never did and he accomplished all of his childhood dreams. To use my favorite quote by him again “Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want something” that quote, in my opinion, sums up Dr. Randy Pausch. He was a very unwavering man and even though he ran into many “brick walls” they never stopped him from achieving what he wanted most out of life!