Blog Post 6

The Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams by Randy Pausch
Shortly into the video, Mr. Randy Pausch began talking about his illness. My reaction was simply, wow! Even in describing his illness one thing that stood out to me was the fact that he is a strong man. Not just physically but mentally as well because he understood that it was something totally out of his control. He states, "You cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand". That said a lot to me as I have learned to understand to except things as they are. You can either drown yourself in worry about the situation or modify it and keep moving forward.

Mr. Pausch went on to tell about his childhood dreams. As he once wanted to be a professional football player, his coach gave him this noteworthy advice. He said, "When you're screwing up and nobody's saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up." The pushing of others is what keeps us going. I know this first hand because I may not be where I am today if it were not for my parents and family pushing me to excellence. Mr. Pausch used the term "Head fake", which he described as, "telling a story or having someone do an activity that they think is for fun, but really a lesson is learned from it all." An example of that would be a child playing in sports learning that it's important to win, however it's not just about winning, but learning good sportsmanship, persevering, and working towards a goal.

As the video progress, Mr. Pausch talks about his dreams of being an Imagineer for Disney. He was turned down the first time and he explained that, "brick walls are not there to hold us back but to show us how bad we want something." I personally find that statement to be true. There have been many things in my life were brick walls were built. I not only found myself working harder to get over the wall but the anxiety of wanting it to happen for me built even stronger. Just as Mr. Pausch got to finally live his dream, I have and will continue to work hard to achieve those dreams and goals that have not been obtained.

In his lecture he stated, "you've got to get the fundamentals down, otherwise all that fancy stuff isn't going to work. I think that this is really important to all educators. I have found this to be true as I have worked with children on both ends of the spectrum in the elementary education field. It is easy to get wrapped up in teaching what is fun, but the primary focus should be to make sure that educators teach the fundamental skills that will carry them from grade level to grade level and even beyond school. Without them, the focus can get lost even when you are trying to include it in the "fancy stuff".

Although it may seem that Mr. Pausch's video was about achieving your childhood dreams, there really was more to it. He wanted to show people how to lead their life and most importantly, to give his children the story of his life. His great works and honors shows that he was not only a great man but a great father. I feel that Mr. Pausch has left behind a legacy, but must most important, great memories for his family. Randy Pausch was a remarkable professor and leader, who has definitely left his mark, in my opinion, as the American Father.