The Last Goodbye - Randy Pausch
A while before I took to the road a friend(Cillian) sent me a youtube clip that had a profound affect on me. I can't imagine anyone I know who wouldn't be affected by it and as I prepared to go on my travels I decided to take some of the inspiration from the experience and wear it on my sleeve.
Hence, on the right hand side of my blog you see a list of goals I wished to achieve in the following months. Some of these may seem banal or facile. But to be honest if it was all that I achieved in those months and then the unspeakable were to happen, then you could rest assured I died a happy person.
So back to The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch was in his own right an exceptional person. And given the nature of humans, when we meet an exceptional person we either A) aspire to be like them, B) resent them or C) admire them, but think that they are made of a different salt than you or I.
For your information I fall into the A category.
There is not a whole lot of reason to for me to give background on this man, if you watch the clip you'll know as much about him as I do( well not quite, but theres always wikipedia!).
The presentation basically introduces the idea of achieving your childhood dreams. The beauty of this presentation is that it is not preachy, it is not one of those "you gotta be Alphamale to get to the top" speeches. Infact, its not a speech its a presentation. A presentation of one mans life through his eyes and and explanation of how he has fulfilled his childhood dreams.
Sadly for me I can't recall my childhood dreams, I can recall situations from my childhood that make me happy and through those I can extrapolate possible dreams.
Some of which that spring to mind -
1. I wanted to be a farmer ( much to the laughter of those in my class, possibly because Siobhan C. offered to be my wife).
2. I wanted animals, lots of animals in my life - I should open an abattoir perhaps?.
3. I wanted the cute girl,(shallow at age 6, eesh!). I always wanted the female lead in the play.
So anyway, these are my truths and possibly my dreams. As childish as they seem they are quite likely still true today. To be honest though I have formulated more concrete dreams in adulthood which stand on top of those childhood dreams. In the Last Lecture, Randy presents his dreams in a list and one by one goes through how he achieved each.
For me, the beauty of the presentation is that as he talks about his dreams he shows how dreams can grow, how dreams are not just one singular goal but a space we aim for to explore and digest once there. It is encouraging (for me atleast) to see that dreams are more than definitive words. They are a nebulous concept which we aspire towards. So at any given point along the way to your dream you are infact closer to the reality than you realise. As soon as you take the first step you are stepping into that cloud and therefore already living that dream, even in its most discrete essence. That isn't to say that you stop as soon as you roll the dice for the first time, keep rolling and keep going. If you watch the clip then you'll get a better understanding of what it is I'm trying to explain.
I do understand that to reach our goals we need focus and stepping stones, I'm not arguing against that. But I guess I'm trying to sell the idea that our dreams are always there for the taking even if they've been dormant for bluergh'ty something years.
Hence, on the right hand side of my blog you see a list of goals I wished to achieve in the following months. Some of these may seem banal or facile. But to be honest if it was all that I achieved in those months and then the unspeakable were to happen, then you could rest assured I died a happy person.
So back to The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch was in his own right an exceptional person. And given the nature of humans, when we meet an exceptional person we either A) aspire to be like them, B) resent them or C) admire them, but think that they are made of a different salt than you or I.
For your information I fall into the A category.
There is not a whole lot of reason to for me to give background on this man, if you watch the clip you'll know as much about him as I do( well not quite, but theres always wikipedia!).
The presentation basically introduces the idea of achieving your childhood dreams. The beauty of this presentation is that it is not preachy, it is not one of those "you gotta be Alphamale to get to the top" speeches. Infact, its not a speech its a presentation. A presentation of one mans life through his eyes and and explanation of how he has fulfilled his childhood dreams.
Sadly for me I can't recall my childhood dreams, I can recall situations from my childhood that make me happy and through those I can extrapolate possible dreams.
Some of which that spring to mind -
1. I wanted to be a farmer ( much to the laughter of those in my class, possibly because Siobhan C. offered to be my wife).
2. I wanted animals, lots of animals in my life - I should open an abattoir perhaps?.
3. I wanted the cute girl,(shallow at age 6, eesh!). I always wanted the female lead in the play.
So anyway, these are my truths and possibly my dreams. As childish as they seem they are quite likely still true today. To be honest though I have formulated more concrete dreams in adulthood which stand on top of those childhood dreams. In the Last Lecture, Randy presents his dreams in a list and one by one goes through how he achieved each.
For me, the beauty of the presentation is that as he talks about his dreams he shows how dreams can grow, how dreams are not just one singular goal but a space we aim for to explore and digest once there. It is encouraging (for me atleast) to see that dreams are more than definitive words. They are a nebulous concept which we aspire towards. So at any given point along the way to your dream you are infact closer to the reality than you realise. As soon as you take the first step you are stepping into that cloud and therefore already living that dream, even in its most discrete essence. That isn't to say that you stop as soon as you roll the dice for the first time, keep rolling and keep going. If you watch the clip then you'll get a better understanding of what it is I'm trying to explain.
I do understand that to reach our goals we need focus and stepping stones, I'm not arguing against that. But I guess I'm trying to sell the idea that our dreams are always there for the taking even if they've been dormant for bluergh'ty something years.
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