Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Blog Assignment 7

Randy Pausch: The Last Lecture Achieving your Childhood Dreams



Randy Pausch


The video begins with Mr. Pausch talking about his condition with liver tumors. The doctors have only given him 4- 6 months to live. This is a lot to handle in the beginning of this video. It is unexpected and he doesn't seem to be bothered by his condition. He is in good health as of right now and even gets down and does some awesome push ups. This makes the crowd and my self laugh. He asks for us not to pity him. He is excited about the lecture.


This lecture is about how to achieve your dreams and how to help others achieve theirs. This is very important as a teacher. Mr. Pausch makes a great analogy of being eight or nine years old and watching men land on the moon. This is so important because he thought anything was possible after seeing such a sight. This is important to remember because I believe sometimes we forget that anything really is possible. Mr. Pausch is doing a great job inspiring people to achieve their dreams.


Mr. Pausch explains his personal experiences with achieving his dreams and they are pretty inspirational. He talks about when he was young and wanted to "go to the moon". Well, he got to experience zero gravity and work with NASA on some project. He checked that of his list of dreams. His second dream was to play NFL football. That dream was never achieved buy he feels he learned more from practice and just playing the sport. He believes he achieved more valuable things than playing NFL football.


A quote that Mr. Pausch says in his lecture really affected me. It really made my eyes open up and realize that even when you don't get what you want, you get something. The quote read "experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted". This is so true in so many different ways. For example, if you don't get the job you want but get another, you are gaining experience. This quote really is so important to me and I think it is something to live by.


He also talks about meeting/being Captain Kirk was one of his childhood dreams. He met William Shatner and that was another check for his childhood dreams. Another dream of his was winning stuffed animals. He looked up to the macho guys who had always won stuffed animals at fairs and carnivals. He has won A LOT of stuffed animals and shows pictures and even brings out some of the animals he has won. This is another check off of his childhood dream list.


Mr.Pausch wanted to be an imagineer. He wanted to make stuff like Disney world. He said this was more difficult than experiencing zero gravity. He applied to Disney buy was denied. He eventually got the opportunity to work on an Aladdin project after going through many, many people. He loved imagineering. It was fabulous he says! You just walk around and get inspired.


He talks about how he helped Tommy achieve his childhood dream of working on the Star Wars moving. Mr. Pausch is a very inspirational man.  He should be the poster child of nothing is impossible. I am so impressed with everything Mr. Pausch as accomplished. He truely has done everything he has wanted to do. It wasn't easy, but he has been so successful. He truly is an inspiration to me. I would like to hear more from him. He is great! He closes with saying that its not about achieving your dreams, its about how you lead your life. This was an excellent lecture. He is a great man!

2 comments:

  1. Hi Leigh, your post about this video is very good. I like how you start off by saying that we need to remember that anything is possible. You are very right people often forget that! I too was affected by the quote, "experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted." It inspired me to never give up. Because even though I don't always get what I want, I will always get experience.

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  2. Leigh,
    I really enjoyed reading your post and the detail you put into it. I also loved the quote you include it also inspired me. I enjoyed your comments on how people need to remember that anything is possible. This is very important for everyone to remember also for new teachers as well. When a teacher knows anything is possible they are more likely to think out side of the box.

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