Never Lose Your Childhood Wonder
You can still have fun while dying. Western culture is extremely sensitive to the matters of life and death, constantly obsessed with prolonging life and avoiding the inevitable. During the early fall of 2007, the late Dr. Randy Pausch appealed to the world with a different approach in the acceptance of death. His unprecedented attitude towards death based on the idea that one is able to always be having fun, even when given an expiration date on their own life. Dr. Pausch persuaded the four hundred people seated in his lecture to focus their lives on their childhood dreams and strive to enable those dreams of others. Through his credibility, reasonable persuasions, and evocation of his audience’s childhood memories, Dr. Randy Pausch in “The Last Lecture” presented an argument that one can lead a life of true happiness and fulfillment if one has a mindset centered upon bettering the lives of their neighbors.
On September 18, 2007, Dr. Pausch gave his “last lecture” at Carnegie Mellon University, during what his doctors estimated was the last three to six months of his life. It is a tradition at Carnegie Mellon University that when a professor is retiring, they give one last lecture as their final goodbye. The premise of this lecture is to give an hour long speech that encompasses everything you would want to say if you were hypothetically dying. However, in Dr. Pausch’s case, this was extremely ironic, because he was literally dying.
Another source of irony was the timing of the speech itself within the school year. Dr. Pausch was giving his last lecture at the beginning of the school year, a time meant for a renewed sense of learning and aspiration for education. Instead of returning to Carnegie Mellon ready for the start of another year, he was moving on to the last chapter of his life; leaving his friends and colleagues behind. This hyperbole of significantly bad timing can also be paralleled to the overall bad timing of the intrusion of cancer within his life. Dr. Pausch served as a husband to his wife Jai and a father to his three very young children Logan, Dylan, and Chloe. He would not be given the privilege to see his children grow into their teenage years, and would never be able to attend any of their graduations, marriages, or the births of his grandchildren. He was going to leave behind his wife Jai alone, to care for their three children, manifesting her destiny of one of heartache and struggle as a widowed parent.
There is something quite comical about the purpose of this lecture: it wasn’t intended for anyone that it was presented to on that day in September. At the end of his speech, Dr. Pausch acknowledged the audience and his appreciation for their attendance at his lecture. However, he confronts them with the fact that everything they just heard was not intended for their eyes and ears, but solely for the eyes and ears of his children. Dr. Randy Pausch wrote his “Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” as a lasting legacy to his children; something they could forever treasure and cherish in his absence. It is very rare that when a lecturer tells their audience that their appeals and the arguments that were just made were not intended for them. This is a very rare case, everything about it is out of the ordinary. “The Last Lecture” gained such a great deal of popularity and attention, because of the manner in which it was presented and the relatable ideas and commonplaces within the context of the lecture itself.
Dr. Randy Pausch was an expert in the power of persuasion. His lecture appealed to millions of people not only because of its substance, but the way in which he proclaimed his argument that one must live through their childhood dreams. Dr. Randy Pausch gave his lecture as a faculty member of Carnegie Mellon with degrees from both Brown University and Carnegie Mellon University, as a former professor of computer science. Through such established intelligence in ethos through prestigious education, Dr. Pausch was deemed credible as someone who spoke true knowledge and educate his audience in such matters regarding computer science. However, this speech was so appealing to the everyday person because he was not talking about computer science; he was not talking about something that he was formally educated in at all. Dr. Pausch was not a professor in philosophy; therefore his address did not cover disciplines in the study of life. Instead, he spoke from experience as an “Average Joe”, preaching from his heart as a friendly neighbor or wise family member. Through pathos, Dr. Pausch moved so many people with his discourse because of the relatable commonplace of all individuals once having a childhood dream. Everyone must pass through the stages of adolescence to develop into adults, therefore all have experienced a time of imagination and wonder that inspired them in some way to be the person they are today. To truly captivate the attention of the audience, Dr. Pausch produced entertainment within his lecture through various elements of comic relief, visual aids, interaction with the audience, and the attitude of his delivery.
Dr. Pausch conveyed his message of having fun at all times through a tangible example of his own take on life during his final days. He divided the world into two groups of people through the “Tigger or Eeyore Analogy”, separating those who are always willing to look at the bright side of things and have fun, from those who constantly mope around and feel sorry for themselves. Through another aspect of pathos, he evoked a common memory of children’s storybook characters, portraying his message to those attentive stating that the only way to attain a high quality of life, is to view the world as an optimist and act a little more like Tigger. Dr. Pausch’s message had the quality of very high energy and extreme enthusiasm regarding this topic that he was truly passionate about. Good character and a positive mindset were exhibited through his delivery, full of gusto, for he was jumping around the stage with the enthusiasm of a small child while dying from a terminal illness – a true testament to his message. The informality of the lecture was also more appealing to his audience because rather than boring them to death with facts and figures in a lecture about computer science; he kept his presentation upbeat and interesting. His lively performance incorporated interactions with the audience in cases where he brought stuffed animals onto the stage that he won at carnivals, a virtual reality demonstration to present the research and studies of science he dedicated his life to, and by celebrating his wife’s birthday amongst more than four hundred people. Also, the context of Dr. Pausch’s testament also only touched upon topics of positive regard; immediately warning his audience that there was not going to be any negative energy through the discussion of cancer, differing views on religion and spirituality, or his family.
Dr. Pausch broke down his oration into three different segments over the course of an hour for a defined sense of organization and smooth transition amongst the three topics. His subjects included: Childhood dreams, Enabling the dreams of others, and Lessons learned, how you can achieve your dreams or enable the dreams of others. Childhood dreams and Enabling the dreams of others focused upon times in Dr. Pausch’s life in which he was able to live out his childhood dreams and use his success as a mentor and professor and aid his students in enabling their childhood dreams. In the final section of Lessons learned, Dr. Pausch speaks his words of wisdom in the ways one should live their life. Logos is exhibited through persuasion within his reasoning for individuals to base their lives upon the necessities of others. Dr. Pausch clearly states that one’s relationships with others are the most important components of life. To maintain a healthy sense of self, one must be aware of and attentive to the needs of those around them. A few of his lessons are to never give up on others, loyalty is a two-way street, be an earnest and valuable person, have something to bring to the table and you will be more welcomed, do not complain, and never lose childhood wonder.
A word of advice that Dr. Pausch constantly repeated throughout the course of his lecture was that brick walls are there for a reason. Brick walls represent obstacles and challenges one must face during one’s lifetime will benefit them in the long run. Dr. Pausch emphasizes the importance of overcoming adversity, “Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things…Brick walls let us show our dedication, they are there to separate us from people who do not want to achieve”. This symbolism relates back to the title of the actual lecture: “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. The context of the title touches upon the purpose for which Dr. Pausch wrote his “last lecture”, a lasting legacy for his children. This title signifies the inspiration for his children to achieve their childhood dreams, not only during their time as juveniles but to always obtain a childlike sense of fun and creativity throughout their lives.
Dr. Pausch concluded his lecture with a key remark that served as both an ending statement and a challenge for his audience, “It’s not how you achieve your dreams, it’s how you lead your life. If you lead life the right way karma will take care of itself. The dream will come to you”. Dr. Randy Pausch persuaded his audience to fulfill their childhood dreams and take the time to ensure the success of those around them through many strategies and aspects of his “last lecture”. Dr. Pausch created his last lecture as a testimony to his children, encouraging them to aspire to be something great and always work towards that goal. This fatherly advice inspires all to never place a limit on imagination and creativity, while allocating time to help a few others along the way.
Works Cited
“The Last Lecture | Randy Pausch.” The Last Lecture | Randy Pausch. Hyperion, 2008. Web. 05 Oct. 2012. <http://www.thelastlecture.com/>.
Pausch, Randy, and Jeffery Zaslow. The Last Lecture. New York, New York: Hyperion, 2008. Print.
Pausch, Randy. “The Last Lecture.” The Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. 18 Sept. 2007. Lecture.