Blog Post #10

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Carnegie Mellon University's professor, Randy Pausch, gave his last lecture on September 18, 2007, in front of a packed auditorium. In his last lecture, Randy Pausch talks about his childhood dreams and enabling the dreams of others. His lecture has inspired me to remember my childhood dreams and try to achieve them in the near future.

In Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, his dreams were 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. He accomplished zero gravity by his students winning a competition and him accompanying them as a journalist. He went as a journalist because they would not let the faculty fly with the students. He did not accomplish being in the NFL, but he got more from not achieving that dream than all the ones he accomplished. By trying to learn football, he learned that fundamentals are an important part of everything, not just football. He quoted, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." Football is a good example for what a "head fake" is. This term stands for indirectly learning skills. Learning is more enjoyable for children whenever they don't know that they are learning. His next dream was accomplished because he was chosen to be an author in the World Book encyclopedia to write on virtual reality. Instead of being Captain Kirk, he met the actor who played Captain Kirk. He then brought some of the bears that he has won from different places out on stage during this final lecture. Being an Imagineer was his hardest achievement. He hit a couple of brick walls before he could accomplish being an Imagineer. He got a couple of letters declining his applications. Then Disney started to create a virtual ride for Aladdin's carpet ride and Disney allowed him to help make this ride more successful.

In the second part of his lecture he tells how he has enabled childhood dreams for others. He created a course called Building Virtual Worlds. This class puts 50 students from different departments in the university in one class. They are randomly put into groups of 3 and are given 2 weeks to complete a project. They do 5 different projects with 5 different groups in a semester. This class allows students to use their imagination to create different virtual worlds. He taught his students about different types of people and how to work in groups.

The third part of his lecture covers the lessons he has learned in his lifetime. Most of the lessons he learned were from his students. He learned to never give up on anything he wanted to achieve. The brick walls should be an encouragement to try harder. If you let a brick wall keep you from achieving your goal, then you do not want the goal enough. In order to achieve a goal, you will need help. Make sure you are earnest, apologize for the mistakes you make and focus on others, not yourself.

How Randy Pausch's Last Lecture Has Affected Me

Hearing Randy Pausch talking about his childhood has reminded me of my childhood dreams that I have forgotten over the years. I have always loved animals and felt the need to help them. One of my childhood dreams is to open an animal shelter for the animals that need someone to care for them. I hope one day I will find a way to make this dream come true. One of my recent dreams is to help children learn who they want to be, while keeping them safe. I know I will not be able to keep every child safe from harm, but I plan to do the best I can to make a difference in children's lives. I would also like to join Peace Corp. to help children outside of our country. Watching his last lecture has reinforced my desire to make the most out of every situation and to strive to never give up when trying to achieve a goal.