Blog Post 7

Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Randy Pausch delivered a message titled Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. He was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and was asked to deliver a message with a meaning. Mr. Pausch explains in the beginning of the lecture that he may look fine on the outside, but he has ten tumors on his liver and has about three months to live. He decided on the theme Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams because he realized how much he has accomplished thanks to his dreams.

Mr. Pausch had big dreams as a kid growing up. Some of these dreams included being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, having an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, growing up to be Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals, and becoming an imagineer for Disney. With all of these dreams, Mr. Pausch has accomplished most of them. While trying to live up to these dreams he came across some brick walls, however he goes on to describe that brick walls are not for keeping you out. Brick walls are for seeing how badly you want something.

Mr. Pausch was able to be in zero gravity. Even thought he did not play in the NFl, he did play football when he was younger. He says that when he did play football, that got him to where he is today. A football field is where he is most comfortable. Captain Kirk, from Star Trek, taught Mr. Pausch about leadership. No, Mr. Pausch did not get to be Captain Kirk, but he did get to meet him. He did, though, end up winning the big stuffed animals from amusement parks. When he was younger his family took him on a trip to see Disneyland. As he was there, he decided he wanted to create rides like that. After he graduated college, he mailed off some applications to Disney and got rejected. Later in time, he ended up being able to work on an Aladdin ride for Disneyland. He was using a virtual tour for this ride. While trying to accomplish this, he came across many brick walls but never gave up.

In this lecture, he makes people realize that we are capable of more than we think of. He has accomplished all of his dreams even though it was not easy. People run into brick walls everyday, but only some people break them.