Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

I thought that Randy Pausch’s last lecture was very interesting. Randy Pausch started his lecture by stating that he had many tumors located on his liver. He let everyone know that his condition was not keeping him down; he said he was in better health than ever and could not be any happier. Randy Pausch had three main points that he covered in his lecture childhood dreams, to help others follow their dreams, and lessons learned.

The first point in his lecture was childhood dreams. Randy Pausch tried to achieve all of his childhood dreams. His first dream was to be in zero gravity. Randy Pausch did achieve this dream with a project that he and his class did for NASA.

The second dream was to play in the NFL. Randy had played football as a child but did not achieve playing in the NFL. Randy did learn many lessons from this dream. He learned that you must learn the fundamentals of what you are trying or nothing else will work. He learned important character traits such as team work and sportsmanship. Randy also learned that critics are the people who care about you and “experience is what you get when you did not get what you wanted”.

The third childhood dream was to be an author in the World Book Encyclopedia. Randy worked very hard to achieve this dream. He accomplished this dream with an article he wrote called Virtual Reality.

Randy’s fourth childhood dream was to be Captain Kirk. He did not get to be Captain Kirk but he settled for meeting him. Randy said that it was awesome to meet your childhood hero.

The fifth childhood dream was to win stuffed animals. Randy achieved this dream, he won many stuffed animals. He showed the animals on the PowerPoint and even brought some onto the stage.

Randy’s sixth and last childhood dream was to be a Disney’s Imagineer. The first time he tried to pursue this goal he was rejected. Randy hit a “brick wall”. He said that “brick walls are there to show how badly you want something”. Randy continued to strive to achieve this goal, he eventually succeeded. Randy was able to work in the Disney’s Imagineering Department due to his job. He wrote a paper on virtual reality which pertained to the Aladdin Project. After this paper was completed he was offered a job to be a Disney Imagineer. Randy turned down this opportunity stating that it would be to stressful, but he did continue to work as a consultant which allowed him to continue to be involved in the Disney’s Imagineering Department.

The second part of the lecture was discussing how to help others follow their dreams. In this segment, of the lecture, he discussed a student that he once taught name Tommy. Tommy’s childhood dream was to work on the Star Wars film. Tommy did eventually get the job opportunity to achieve his dream. Randy Pausch created a course at Carnegie Mellon called “Building Virtual Worlds”. The course turned out to be wonderful and each semester there is a long line of people trying to sign up for this course. This course allowed students to realize that they can accomplish their dreams. After ten years of teaching this course Randy Pausch handed down his position and moved on to what is called “The Dream Fulfillment Factory”.

The “Dream Fulfillment Factory” is headed by Randy Pausch and Don Marinelli. This was created an Entertainment Technology Center that allows students to receive a Master’s Degree in Entertainment Technology. The class requirements are to complete five virtual reality projects that promote Entertainment Technology. Randy Pausch accomplished another dream by helping others to follow their dreams.

In the last part of the lecture Randy discussed lessons learned. First, Randy talked of the people who are there to help us besides our parents. He discussed the roles that teacher, mentors, friends, and colleagues play in our lives. Randy said that students do not only learn from their teacher, that teachers learn from their students. He reminded everyone to never lose their child-like wonder. Randy also said that you should always have fun in everything you do. Another point was to be loyal and never give up. Randy also stated to always remember that you have to let people help you. You must tell the truth and when you screw up apologize and always focus on others instead of yourself.

This lecture taught me that you must always look for the best in everyone. Also, there is no need to complain you must work harder. Randy Pausch’s last lecture provided us with two “head fakes”, this is a lesson that someone does not know that they are going to learn. The first head fake was that people learn not how to achieve their goals, but how to live their life. The second head fake was that this lesson was not really for the audience, it was actually for his kids.