Randy Pausch (October 23, 1960- July 25, 2008), a professor at Carnegie Mellon University gave his Last Lecture on September 18, 2007. In this lecture he talked about his many interesting and amusing childhood dreams. He also discussed his many lessons learned and gave inspiring advice on how to achieve your own personal goals. He optimistic with a great sense of humor regardless of his numerous cancerous tumors. He is very motivating to watch and listen to. This lecture was extremely inspiring and absolutely wonderful to watch.
My favorite thing he said in this lecture was: "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand". This was actually my background on my phone before I had ever listened to this lecture. Just those words alone help to push you further and convince you to keep your head up through everything, no matter how hard things may get in life, but listening to his entire lecture can do so much more for you. We can't change or control everything that happens to us in life. We can, however, change the way we think about it. We can control our actions following whatever happens to us.
With that being said, I will express how not only that particular quote, but Dr. Pausch's lecture and himself as a person help to motivate and inspire me. Recently after transferring schools, moving, and beginning the most difficult semester of my life so far with a chronic illness IBS among other much more personal issues as well, I was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety with high stress levels. It is not something I openly share or speak about, but I feel it is necessary to allow others to better understand how much someone like Randy Pausch can help to motivate people like me and worse in life. I guess it is my "elephant in the room to introduce" as he says.
Another thing he says that I love is: "Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things". I firmly believe that. Life wouldn't be as worthwhile if we never hit any brick walls. Hitting these said brick walls help you to overcome and apreciate a multitude of different things and obstacles in life such as severe depression, anxiety, stress, school, relationships, and other personal dreams and goals we all have in our minds. Dr. Pausch helps to motivate me to keep going no matter what, no matter how hard or frustrating it gets, no matter how many times I mess up. He says: "When you're screwing up and no one's saying anything to you, that's when you know they've given up. Good lesson to learn because your critics are the ones who still love you and care" and "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted". Everything this wonderful man says helps you. It all makes you want to keep going, keep bettering yourself, and keep helping others better themselves as well. May this man rest in peace and his words and wisdom always live on.
Your personalization makes this video even more meaningful. The reason we include this video is to inspire you to bust through those brick walls, to raise the bars, to execute effective head fakes and much more. I hope you will do these things when you are a teacher. Keep on learning!
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