Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch 

Photo of Randy Pausch

The inspiring video that I watched last week was called “The Last Lecture."The speaker, Randy Pausch, was an American professor of computer science and human-computer interaction. It is kind of hard for me to believe that Randy Pausch actually died at age of 47 from pancreatic cancer. Indeed, it is also hard to imagine his death because he was such a great professor, who had brought us all kinds of different types contributions. Especially, I have learned different life lessons and experiences from his lecture.

The beginning of the lecture first impressed me when he talked about his childhood dreams. For instance, one of his childhood dreams was to be in zero in gravity. It seems sort of like nonsense and funny, does’t it? I really think that everybody has had those naïve opinions when they were little. Even though our dreams that we had in our childhoods were out of track or a little bit full of fantasy, they were definitely a good start in setting up some goals as Randy did. What I learned from this part was to keep chasing our dreams no matter how hard they are, and to never give up. 

Moreover, Dr. Pausch’s makes a significant point: we should be valued and proud of ourselves.  This reminded me of my father. My father once told me that I should be proud of what I will be doing in the future even if my job is a street cleaner. I did not understand what my father actually meant until now. As I am getting older, I am also getting more mature, and some of my immature and ridiculous ideas have disappeared as time was passed on. I kind of get why my father told me this. We are all successful people as long as we are valuable to society and no matter how embarrassing or shameful our jobs are. I am glad that Dr. Pausch proved this truth again which made me more certain and clear of my future job orientation. 

The last question was how to get people to help you. Here is an example from my life experience: I used to have lots of struggles in studying math when I was in elementary school. After I had a conversation with my math teacher, I got to know that getting help from teachers or parents was really important. In fact, there was nothing I could do without help from others at this point. Since then, I have gotten more used to asking questions that I had always been struggling with. Although Randy Pausch is gone, he has left precious lessons from his 47 years experiences. 

Resolutions for 2015

At the beginning of 2015, I am going to make three goals for myself. One of the most important reasons is that I would like to challenge myself and become a better person in the future. I certainly know it is hard to accomplish all of them by the end of year; however, difficulties and challenges will wake me up and push me further.

            First of all, I want to be more active and talkative during school days, especially during class. In fact, being an active person can help me to understand teachers’ teaching points much better. For instance, if I don’t express any of my opinions or give any eye contact to teachers, they probably think that I do not understand what they are talking about. Certainly, this was one of my weaknesses for the whole year in 2014, and I did not make it better which I am kind of regretful about it. Thus, I eagerly want to start a new beginning for a brand new year. Even though it is a bit harder to achieve it, I will not give up till I am successful.

            Secondly, I really want to go to Tibet this year if I have a chance. I have been thinking about traveling there with my family for such a long time. Traveling to Tibet seems not a big deal because it’s such a simple thing to do. Nevertheless, we hardly have got time to do it. We have spent lots of time on our personal stuff and barely go traveling during vacations. This time, I am eager to travel along with my parents no matter what; I even made some plans about this trip yesterday. I had never known how attractive that Tibet was before. But this time, my wish is getting stronger and stronger.

            My last goal, which is the hardest to achieve, is getting better grades in all my subjects. Honestly, A’s are what I want the most for all my subjects. Perhaps, the hardest subject is Chemistry. For the last three months, I have absolutely put lots of efforts in it, but I feel like I still have a long way to go. I have considered that I’d better find another path or strategy to improve my Chemistry grades, such as go to extra help more often or pay more attention during class. The Chemistry exam set off an alarm, and I have realized its real time to prove myself. As long as I have enough confidence, I will achieve it, eventually. I hope all of my goals will come true in the future. I am looking forward to starting a new beginning.