Blog Assignment #7

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Randy Pausch IS a great man. He may have passed but he is still a wonderful man. What I have learned from him will go with me til I die. He was funny, he taught you things, he was inspirational, and he was fun. When I found out he had cancer I was shocked and kinda sad, but I looked at him and saw he was happy and therefore, I was happy for him. He is definitely in better shape than me. Did you see him do those pushups? Wow, I can't even do one. Even though Randy was the elephant in the room with tumors in his liver, he was still a happy great guy. What he taught was so meaningful.

When he starts out he tells us he has experienced a deathbed conversion, he bought a Mac. He then begins to talk about his childhood dreams. He talks about how he could never find a photo of him not smiling and that was very gratifying to him. He then tells what his childhood dreams were. One of his dreams was to be in zero gravity. He was able to do this by his college got together a team and won this competition and got to go in NASA's "Vomit Comet"but this is where he hit his first brick wall. Randy says that brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things. He found out that faculty members under no circumstances were able to fly with the team. Randy was heartbroken. He soon found out that the team was able to bring a local media journalist form their hometown. Randy sent in some paper work and said they were doing virtual reality and the rest of the media could film it, he says bring something to the table because that will make you more welcomed, and he got a media pass and inevitably got to experience zero gravity.

His next dream was wanting to be A NFL football player. He talks how it is all about fundamentals.You have to get the fundamentals down or all the other stuff will not work. He talks about how his coach yelled at him and rode him throughout practice and he learned that this was a good thing because when your screwing up and nobody is saying anything to you anymore that means they gave up. He never made it to NFL but football got him where he is today. He says that, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted."

His next dream was being a author in the World Book Encyclopedia. When he was somewhat a authority on virtual reality he got to write a article in the Encyclopedia on virtual reality.
Another was he wanted to meet Captain Kirk. He got to meet him when there was a book being written on Start Trek and they came around to different places in the country and they came to study the virtual reality setup and he got to meet him. They setup a star trek reality for him and Mr. Kirk was a good sport about it. Randy loved that he got to meet his childhood idol by Mr. Kirk coming to him to look at his cool stuff.
Another was winning stuffed animals in which he actual won quite a few, he even brings them on stage so you will believe him.
His last dream was to be an imagineer. It was quite hard for him to achieve this. When he went to Disney World he was like I want to build this so he went to college and graduated and wrote letters to try and get in but they said no. Brick wall. They are there for people who really want it. He eventually made it to be one but realized he didnt really want to do this.

I think Randy Pausch is quite a amazing person. He is very motivational and inspirational. He keeps you interested in his lectures and he tells you valuable information. I will always remember him even though all I did was watch a video of him on YouTube. Words are very powerful and can change the future of many people. I hope everyone achieves their dreams and may Randy Pausch rest in Peace. He will never be forgotten.