Blog Post #7

Randy Pausch's last lecture was amazing! He is a phenomenal speaker. As soon as he started speaking he told the audience about his ten tumors and that he only had months to live. WOW! He made me realize just how valuable life is. He wasn't sad, or gloomy; in fact, he even stated that he didn't not want pity or for people to think he should be sad. During his lecture he got right to the point, and kept my attention the entire time. The first point he talks about is his childhood dreams. He talks about dreams he accomplished, and also the ones he did not. Some were big, some were not quite as big. Either way, he admitted his failures and successes. Something he points out right away is that "brick walls are not there to keep us out, but to give us a chance to show us how bad we want something." I loved this! It can be used in every aspect of life, and I plan on applying it to mine.
Being a professor helped him enable his childhood dreams. He even had a student who had a dream to work on a Star Wars film, and eventually was able to work on three of them. Another thing he talks about is the course he created called Building Virtual Worlds. Fifty students from all around the university were chosen to create groups of four. Each group did a different project, and this became a major hit! During the presentation of the projects parents, students, and faculty came to see watch. Every one around the university wanted to be involved in this course. The students would get thrilled by reactions of the audience and by the tone of his voice, I could tell he enjoyed it as well.
Randy Pausch teamed up with Don Martin to create the Dream Fulfillment Factory. He stated that the success of this was probably because he and Don were so different, but in my opinion it just goes back to the saying "Great minds think alike." These men made the Entertainment Technology Center great! Carnegie Mellon University was a place for students to go in order to fulfill their dreams. We need more universities like this; actually we need more professors like this as well!
During the last part of his video he stated that parents and mentors are a huge part in making dreams come true. This is something I believe as well, I am very thankful to have parents that help me achieve my dreams. Randy Pausch was an amazing professor, and I can only hope to be such a great teacher as he was. Watching this video was definitely worth it and it did not seem like it was over an hour long. I would hope that every person who is looking to be a teacher watched this video.