The Last Lecture Ch.4

In chapter four Randy talks about ways to save time. While he was at the grocery store his credit card went through twice, he thought about it for a minute and decided that he could live without the 16 dollars but he couldn't waste the twenty minutes to get the situation sorted out. he jsut wanted to start spending his time doing this that meant something to him....not waiting in the grocery store talking to a manager. He also talks about plans and that the only way you can change them is if you have a plan to call your own in the first place. He realized that towards the end his time was the most important thing, he would rather be making memories with his children, spending time with his wife, and doing things he wanted to do, not revovle and a schedule for everyone else's needs. Randy was very mucha bout enabling the dreams of others, and that is part of what makes him a good guy. To me, Pausch is remarkable in the way he lives his life. He helps others and he knows that being angry or frustrated is just wasting time. He sets a great example not only for people suffering from a terminal illness but just people in general.

The Last Lecture ch.6

The sixth chapter in “The Last Lecture” is titled Final Remarks. I believe that this has more than one meaning. They are his final remarks in his lecture, the last things he wants to say to the audience, but they are also part of his last remarks for his children. In a way they are a partial goodbye. He takes to the time to talk about each child individually, he describes them then he tells the audience what he sees them doing when they are grown up. But after he tells the audience that he also says that just because he said one will be the social chair of his fraternity doesn’t mean that he has to be the social chair. He wants his kids to be what they want to be, not what they thought their father wanted them to be. He says that as an advisor he had seen lots of students crying because they were doing what their parents wanted them to do instead of listening to themselves. That is very true, I know a few people who picked what college to go to and what to major in because of their parents and not all of them are happy. Then I have a friend who is in her second year like me and has changed her major three times. Because she was waiting for that perfect fit, the thing she could see herself doing. And her parents were behind her every step of the way, which is how more parents need to be. Pausch also takes the time to talk about his wife Jai. HE said that she will have to learn to take time for herself after he is gone. He also says that is she finds happiness through re-marriage then by all means do it. To me that seems like a real selfless thing to do. Sure he could make her feel guilty about it but that is not the kind of man that Pausch is. And that is just a small part of what makes him special. At the end of his lecture Randy had made sure that his last few remarks were prepared on slides just in case he was too emotional to finish the lecture. He went through it all though, and at the very end he asked the audience if they had figured out the head fake yet, the lecture wasn’t for them or for him, but for his kids. And that is very true, when they are older, and can understand everything that happened, they can go back through the tapes he made with them, the letters he wrote them, this book and finally his Last Lecture. Not only will they see what kind of man their father was but they will also get to see how much he cared for them and their mom. This book and that lecture are just pieces of what he is leaving behind for them but they are the big pieces, ones that will allow them to view their father for who he was through their own eyes, not somebody else’s, and that has to be the most important part of all of this.

The Last Lecture Chapter 5

"I'll take an earnest person over a hip person every time, because hip is short-term. Earnest is long-term."

This is very true. I love that Pausch uses Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts as his reference of being earnest. Back in my hometown I know two guys who became Eagle Scouts. Right now one of them is currently in Iraq with the Marine Corps and another just graduated from Paris Island.



There were many great things in this chapter but that stuck out the most in my mind. Because in the end being Earnest is what it is all about and Pausch knew that early on.

Something else that got to me was when Randy vouced for his student Dennis, he essentially put his tenor on the line because he believed in Dennis and what he could do. The Dean was ready to expel but Randy went in and pleaded the case, not for himself but for his student.

Something that made me laugh the most in this chapter was the way Randy described his Academic Reviewer tactic of sending a box of thin mints with the papers. That way, when he was curious as to whether or not the people had read his paper, he jsut asked them if they had eaten that box of thin mints yet.

The thing I like most about this man is his whole outlook on life and jsut the way he handles things. Everyone would be lucky to know somebody liek Randy Pausch.