The Last Lecture

I just finished The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch this weekend. It is a good read. Inspirational, but Pausch is also a realist. He knows he is dying. He writes for his kids, so that they will have a legacy. I think writers should know their purpose, and Pausch knows his. To be able to look at your life and chose lessons from it that are universal is the mark of a life well-lived. Though Pausch is not yet fifty, he seems to know what he got and is getting from his life.

The Last Lecture is full of great quotes and noteworthy ideas. One I liked was "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted." I learned early and continue to learn that We don't always get what we want out of life, but we have to live it anyway, so we might as well live the experience. Whether uplifting or disappointing, experience makes us stronger. Life is too short to dwell on what we don't get. It should be embraced day by day because tomorrow is an uncertainty.

Someone I know died of cancer this week...she was not yet thirty. She struggled with her cancer for several years, but she believed that there was a purpose for everything she went through. So do I. She showed others how to live life in the face of adversity just like Pausch does. Jessica may not have written a book, but her life was full of meaning and purpose. Both she and Pausch have given me a little perspective.

A link to the last lecture in case anyone is interested: http://www.thelastlecture.com/