Hills 1

Rapley Hills

Joseph Fetsch

The Last Lecture Reflection

29 March 2023

The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch, is a deep and personal reflection of his life

given in the form of a speech to the masters students of Carnegie Mellon University in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He spends the hour talking about some of the key life lessons

he has learned, with hopes of passing some of his wisdom onto the class. He had

recently been diagnosed with cancer, so this added to the emotion in his lecture. He

wanted to talk about some of his achievements and the legacy he wanted to leave

behind. Three essential themes that I took away from this lecture are view challenges as

opportunities for growth, have passion for the things I do in life, and time is precious.

Pausch’s views on challenges are one of my favorite parts of this lecture. He

illustrates the importance of taking on difficult challenges with my favorite metaphor

from his lecture, which is that with any challenges, you will have arrows in your back.

The arrows are all of the red flags that come with any challenge, and I feel that this is

especially applicable to the portion of my life that I am in right now. Like many other

seniors, I have been in the process of juggling major school projects with finding a job

beginning after graduation. This pressure comes with a lot of quick decision making,

and it is often hard to see what arrows may be coming my way. I find comfort in the way

that he describes how to deal with these “arrows,” which is that even if I do fail in what I

am doing, I will, at the very least, grow from it.

A second theme that I loved from The Last Lecture is that I should have a passion

for all of the things that I do. I feel that this is a much easier said than done type of
 Hills 2

statement, so it is nice to have a reminder from Pausch. Pausch argues that by engaging

in things that we actually enjoy and love. Fulfilling experiences will have a much heavier

impact on us than things that are meaningless. He even goes further to say that by

sticking to our passions, our obstacles will be easier to overcome. What I take away from

this is that even if there are times in my life that I am not enjoying something, I still can

take away little things from it by focusing on where I truly want to end up.

Finally, in my opinion, the most impactful take away from The Last Lecture is

that time is precious. Time is something that is difficult to grasp at this stage in my life,

but the importance of taking advantage of every moment is starting to come into

perspective. With graduation and “the real world” bearing down on me, things like

football games and spending time with college friends have become a lot more

meaningful this year. Pausch’s recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer has added even

more weight to this theme, as he has realized his days are numbered. He explains that

we need to take advantage of the time that we have, and relates to the previous point

about sticking to our passions by suggesting that we only engage in fulfilling activities.

Overall, Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture is a moving speech about living life to the

fullest and cherishing the moments that we have with loved ones. Anyone that watches

the lecture could pull out something that speaks to them, and the things that he said

about viewing challenges as opportunities for growth, having passion for the things I do

in life, and time being precious. Pausch is someone that has earned a lot of respect, and

he clearly had a major impact on everyone that he knew.