The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch

Despite his exceptionally optimistic and intellectual views, along with his major accomplishments, I would not be Randy Pausch’s friend. After reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, I can see our personalities and actions would undoubtedly clash and it would make for a not so pleasant relationship. Randy and I would not be friends seeing that I would more than likely compare myself to him, inevitably making me feel bad about myself, I do not agree with a few of his somewhat selfish decisions, and because he is a particularly opinionated man that sometimes tends to offend people with his bluntness. Randy has accomplished just about every single dream he has ever set his mind to. He explained, “Whatever my accomplishments, all of the things I loved were rooted in the dreams and goals I had as a child...and in the ways, I had managed to fulfill almost all of them” (10). It was possible for
It is obvious that family is a very important thing to Randy, but taking on his last lecture while only having months to live, was rather selfish regarding his family. Instead of spending his last few months focusing completely on his wife and children, he spent a lot of that time working on his lecture and the book. Even Jai was not excited for the lecture, according to Randy, she said “‘It’ll be all consuming.’ The lecture...would be an unnecessary diversion from the overwhelming issues we [are] grappling with in our lives” (6). Randy even missed Jai’s birthday for the lecture, which would be the last birthday he could ever spend with her. He admitted, “My departure was an unpleasant reminder for Jai that she’d now be without me for this birthday and all the birthdays to come” (12). Yes, the lecture was a special opportunity, but his selfish acts would bother me greatly so being around him while he’s making those decisions would spark a lot of annoyance in