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A Lesson from The Lesson
Guy:
Dreams come a size too big so we can grow
into 'em.
In each newsletter I share
a lesson that I try to keep close to me as I continue on my journey of
understanding its meaning in my life. I'm writing this Lesson on
July 29, 2008. Tonight at 10:00 on the popular TV show "Prime
Time" a celebration of life will be aired. The life being
celebrated is Randy Pausch's. Ya see, Randy died on July 25th after
a battle with inoperable pancreatic cancer. So, why celebrate the
life of a man named Randy Pausch? The answer is simple: In his 47 short
years, Randy left unbelievable legacies for his family and for us as
well.
Do you remember your
childhood dreams? If I ask you right now, to find a pen and some
paper and write down your childhood dreams, could you do it? What
did you dream of doing when you grew up? Who did you dream of
becoming? What childhood dreams have you realized? Why those
and not others?
Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh has a long-standing, time honored program called "The
Last Lecture." The university invites well known professors
from all over the world to come to campus and give a lecture. One
recent internationally recognized professor invited to give his
"last lecture" was Randy Pausch, himself a professor at
Carnegie Mellon. One huge difference separated Randy's lecture from
all others that were ever shared. This lecture, given just a few
months ago on September 18, 2007, was, indeed, Randy's last
lecture. Because of his inoperable cancer, he had only a few months
to live.
The lecture he gave -
"Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" - wasn't about
dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of
enabling the dreams of others, and of seizing every moment. Randy
so wanted to give this last lecture, primarily as a gift and a legacy to
his wife, Jai, and their three children, who are six, three, and eighteen
months. In thinking about leaving his family behind, Randy said,
"Somebody's going to push my family off a cliff pretty soon, and I
won't be there to catch them. And that breaks my heart. But I
have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall. So, I can curl
up in a ball and cry, or I can get to work on the nets."
For a while, Randy
struggled with where to begin his thinking process for his lecture.
He thought about the question, "What makes me unique?" He
realized all of his accomplishments of all the things he loved were
rooted in the dreams and goals he had as a child and the ways he managed
to fulfill almost all of them during his 47 years. Randy had six
childhood dreams. His dreams were: being in zero gravity, playing
in the NFL, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, being
Captain Kirk from the Star Trek episodes, winning stuffed animals, and
being a Disney Imagineer.
Randy realized four of his
dreams. He didn't play Captain Kirk, although he did meet William
Shatner who played the part of Kirk. And he didn't play in the
NFL. However, ABC News made a couple of phone calls and in October,
Pausch took the field with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was wearing the
jersey of his favorite player: wide receiver Heinz Ward. Moments
later he was catching balls thrown by Ward. He caught every pass
and even kicked a field goal, on his first attempt.
In his book, The Last
Lecture, Randy
describes the obstacles he overcame as brick walls. He said,
"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." In another part of the book,
Randy said, "The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't
want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other
people.
Randy was a dear friend
with Diane Sawyer of Good Morning America. Last spring,
Sawyer asked Randy what was the best thing that had happened to him that
day. He said, "Well, first off, the day's not over yet.
So there's always a chance that there will be a new best."
Dreams
come a size too big so we can grow into 'em.
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