“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” — Randy Pausch 
“The Last Lecture” is a series of talks where university professors are asked to consider their demise and to ruminate on what matters most to them.
Randy Pausch (left), a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture on September 18, 2007. Unlike other speakers, Professor Pausch didn’t have to imagine it as his last as he had had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lively, energetic and funny lecture he gave — “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”— wasn’t really about dying. Instead, the lecture was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (as “time is all you have...and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was about living a full life.
Randy’s lecture has become a phenomenon. It has been watched on youtube by more than 7.8 million viewers. The lecture was expanded into a book which has sold more than 3 million copies. Sadly, Randy lost his battle to pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008, but his legacy will continue to inspire us all, for generations to come. ..
If you have some time, do watch Randy’s last lecture…
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Initially he was hesitant to give the lecture… but in the end he decided to give the lecture, because it would be an opportunity to create something for his children to watch when they were older. He wanted his last lecture to be part of his legacy to his children. In the preface to his book, Randy writes,
"I knew what I was doing that day, under the ruse of giving an academic lecture, I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children."
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reflection: Consider what would be your last lecture. What wisdom would you impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance? If you had to vanish tomorrow, what would you want as your legacy?
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