“I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day because there’s no other way to play it.” - Randy Pausch
Professor Randy Pausch has touched millions of people with his final lecture on Sept. 18, 2007 - “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. His lecture led to the best selling book “The Last Lecture” which continues to top the NY Times advice list.
I was fortunate to be a student in Randy’s class my senior year in the fall of 1998 - HCI 630: Programming Usable Interfaces. He taught me to always look at design with an open mind and balance ‘improvements’ with keeping things simple. The design lessons I learned in that class I have used and will continue to use throughout my life. Not only in my career work, but in my personal creative goals as well.
Last Sept. a good friend of mine asked if I had heard about a CMU professor dying of cancer who was highlighted in the Wall Street Journal. I hadn’t, so I searched online and found out it was Randy. I literally gasped.
He was always a motivating speaker whose energy and enthusiasm were contagious, so I wasn’t surprised that he had delivered a great lecture. What did surprise me was how I found myself laughing, crying, cursing cancer (I still do), hoping for miracles, and reflecting on my dreams - a multitude of emotions emerged in one hour of watching him speak. I was deeply touched just as the millions of others who have seen the lecture have been. He reminded me to look at people with an open mind and balance self ‘improvements’ with keeping things simple - be honest, follow your passion, dream big.
One humorous thing to note. When I was his student I would visit his homepage to check assignments, office hours, contact info, etc. On the page, he had a link to “Stuffed Animals” which took you to a web page with multiple images of Randy and his parents with large stuffed plush animals (lots of them). To be honest, I thought it was a bit strange. When he spoke about winning the animals in his lecture, I had an “Ahh…now I get it!” moment, coupled with a laugh.
Randy lived 6 months longer than the doctors expected, most likely due to his persistence and optimism. He was able to address the CMU class of 2008 in May and delivered another inspiring speech, including the memorable line - “… we don’t beat the Reaper by living longer, we beat the Reaper by living well.”
The world lost a special person when Randy passed away last Friday, July 25th, 2008. I am grateful to have had the honor of being his student and learning part of his craft from the man himself. But his legacy is his outlook of hope and love, and how he called the world to remember and fight for their dreams.
