Currently reading: “The Last Lecture”
“So that was a setback. But I kept my mantra in mind: The brick walls are there for a reason. They’re not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”
~ Randy Pausch
Mr. Pausch found out he had pancreatic cancer that spread to his liver and left him with mere months to live. he delivered a “last lecture” at Carnegie Mellon and wrote a book — effectively leaving behind a legacy of how to really-for-real achieve your wildest and most awesome childhood dreams. the best part is that these aren’t crazy dreams he decided to fulfill just because he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. even before he was sick, he spent his entire life dreaming big and shooting for the moon.
this is a book that teaches us to encourage children to dream and reminds us of the vast potential we knew the planet used to hold for us.
and still does.
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September 14th, 2009 at 8:41 am
I love this post Jen! I surely will read this book! I hope everything is great for you! Hope you are enjoying family medicine! Take care!
September 14th, 2009 at 10:20 am
It’s a great book, eh? Glad you’re enjoying it!
September 14th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I’ve watched and rewatched that Last Lecture so many times. Such an inspiration.
September 14th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
I love his book. I love the lecture. I need to re-watch it. Makes me cry every time.
I was fortunate to have had quite a bit of email contact with Randy in the last year before he passed away, and he was an amazing man.
September 16th, 2009 at 9:32 am
This is a book I wanted to read a while ago.. I sadly forgot about it.. Thank you for reminding me again of it and what it can teach us. I will now add it to my goodreads list.
September 18th, 2009 at 12:44 am
I’ve walked past this one a few times at the bookstore and didn’t pick it up – looked too schmaltzy. I might have to give it a try now. I kind of lumped it in with Maria Shriver’s little blue book, which was pretty brutal, but maybe now I’ll reconsider.
Thanks.
October 5th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Thanks for downloading this so that we could listen to it in the car. It was a really great book on CD and I would really like to see the actual lecture that he gave that day. It was sad, but not too sad. I like how he focuses on a bunch of positive and how he had the chance to actually say good-byes. Too many times people don’t get that luxury.