The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

When you look up The Opposite of Loneliness on Goodreads, it says that readers also enjoyed The Last Lecture. The synopsis there will also tell you that The Opposite of Loneliness is in the same vein of The Last Lecture. Those were reasons why I selected it to read, aside from it being one of my 100 Books.

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

Last lectures are something that professors are asked to give where they focus on wisdom they want to impart on the world in the event they suddenly meet their demise. Randy Pausch did not have to imagine his last lecture, he knew it was coming. He had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and was only expected to live another three to six months. Instead of his last lecture focusing on death, however, he gave the lecture "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams." But he did not want to stop there. He had three very young children, ages ranging from 18 months to 6. He wanted them to have anything possible to show how much he loved them and pass on any life lessons he would not be there to deliver when the time came. So he put it in a book.

Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August 2006. He underwent a Whipple surgery and chemotherapy in hopes of beating the odds that were stacked against him. In August 2007, he was told the cancer had metastasized to his liver and spleen. In September 2007, he gave his infamous speech, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” His book, The Last Lecture, would be published on April 11, 2007. In May 2008, he got word the cancer had spread further, and in June he indicated he would be stopping further chemotherapy because of adverse side effects. On July 24, it was announced he had entered hospice, and one day later, on July 25, 2008, Diane Sawyer announced on Good Morning America that Randy Pausch had passed away that morning.

I really admire what Pausch accomplished with this book. He talks about the multiple ways he tried to ensure his kids will always have memories of him and be able to get answers about him long after he is gone. Aside from this book, he made video tapes of him with the kids, playing and talking; he did special things with them, like movies and Disney World; he made sure that even when he was working on the last lecture, he made sure to stop every 90 minutes or so and spend time with them. If you take anything away from the book, it is that he loves his children, and he loves his wife, Jai, more than anything on the planet.

(Source: Giphy)

Another very obvious fact about him is his love for teaching and his work. He was a computer science teacher at Carnegie Mellon. The way he talks about teaching and his students reminds me on the teachers I have had that still, after all this time, have had an impact on me. It also makes me sad that I never had the chance to take one of his classes. He admits he was a hard teacher, but you can tell he was also a fun teacher if you put in the work. The way he praises students years or decades after teaching them makes me happy. Being a person who has had teachers talk about something you did when you were there student, I know how important and validating those comments can be. It makes me want to find these students and sit down with them and pick apart as much of their brain as possible so I can maybe pick up just a little bit of what they learned from Pausch.

Pausch does admit he can be arrogant and cocky, and this comes across in his writing. It made me wonder if I would have been able to put up with him as a teacher, or how Jai put up with him. Some of his comments are a bit harsh in my opinion. He talks about how his football coach dumped out the cooler of water when he felt the team was not performing to his standards, and he defends the coach decision and says that if this were to happen today, parents would be contacting lawyers. He talks about how it was a cool day so they weren’t hurting for water and admits that the teams hustle on the field was not ideal. I don’t want to sound like one of those parents, but to me it seems like overkill and a waste of water. There are other instances where he is defending someone else’s or his owns decisions, and they are usually said with a cocky attitude.

(Source: Giphy)

All that aside, it was a good book. He uses a lot of cliches; he talks about why he uses a lot of cliches. They get old by the end of the book, but I also believe a cliche is a cliche for a reason. It reminded me of something I put together for my oldest niece when she turned 18. It was a collection of 100 or more lessons I had learned in my 25 years of life that I thought would help her as she entered the next stage of her life. Obviously, mine did not become a published book read by millions; but it has been read by her and served a similar purpose.

Rating: 6/10
Author: Randy Pausch
Genres: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Biography
Dates Read: February 26-27, 2020