City News

Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow’s The Last Lecture presents a beautiful memoir where Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon with terminal cancer, shares how to live life to its fullest. As he walks readers through the most significant events in his life and describes the impact they had on him and others, his relatable experiences allow readers to put themselves in his shoes and experience the journey for themselves. Even while he writes about his life, knowing that its end is approaching, he does not turn his memoir into a sob story or an emotional rollercoaster

for readers. Instead, his lessons cause the audience to consistently reflect on their own

lives, their past decisions, and the way they desire to live life. Pausch emphasizes the

importance of overcoming the “brick wall,” fulfilling one’s dreams and even others’

dreams, and seizing every life opportunity to achieve their goals or progress forward in

life. As someone who did all that he could to try to live a little longer for his family and

students and as someone who has never had “giving up” in his vocabulary, he also

delivers and shines his perseverance on the young audience. Therefore, as an author

with only a few months left to live, as a professor giving his last lecture, and as a father

who dedicates this book to the young children he leaves behind, his meaningful

messages and advice tug at readers’ heartstrings and offer dozens of lessons that any

young adult reader can learn from.

Randy Pausch was a child who painted an elevator and the quadratic formula on

his bedroom walls. He was also an adult who finally achieved his childhood dreams of

flying in zero gravity and becoming a Disney Imagineer. Before marrying a loving wife

and having a family of his own, he was a bachelor uncle who poured soda into his

brand-new Volkswagen Cabrio convertible just to teach his nephew and niece that

“people were more important than things.” As his memoir connects to his famous last

lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Randy Pausch reveals what it truly

means to achieve one’s childhood dreams. And, he makes sure to include that they can

all be achieved as long as one is surrounded by the right people and seizes at every

opportunity they come across. By using anecdotes and his own meaningful experiences

to demonstrate what he means, this author depicts what it means to really live , and he

aims to teach his audience to do just that: live.

As a reader, I feel a deep connection with Randy Pausch’s memoir. I can relate

to so many of his life experiences, and I took away so many life lessons, whether

academically or just personally. This book is not a clutter of details or words – it does

not feel like Pausch is compressing his whole life into a couple hundred emotional

pages or trying to “lecture” readers on how they must act and cope with situations.

Instead, he uses his wisdom and intelligence to inspire readers to live “with purpose and

joy.” His language flows very easily, and after reading each chapter, I found myself

reflecting not only on my life, but also on the modern society that surrounds me today. I

recommend this book to everyone, because anyone of any age can learn from his

memoir. I rate this memoir a 10/10.