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Response Paper to "The Last Lecture"

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Response Paper to "The Last Lecture"
The Last Lecture: Response Paper

Casey Artigliere

University of Delaware

I don’t know where to begin or how to respond. I am so saddened by his story and so impressed by both Randy Pausch’s resume and his attitude. I think he is incredibly… cocky, but I give him leave to be so and respect him for all he’s done, his obvious quirky uniqueness, and the legacy he left behind. But that is not why I cried through ¾ of the book and his lecture. I cried because it is his story, in all it’s truth, and it was ended too soon. But he played his hand well, and he truly mastered the time he was given. His lessons resonate from their do-as-you-will faith in humanity to the intense competency he required of himself and those around him. He is inspiring for being who he was, through and through.

The lessons he teaches are not directed at women: they are not to, by or for women, specifically, but they are applicable to us all. He does not appear to be someone who is gender-biased and though I imagine him to understand some of the disparities that exist, we are all capable of great things when we put our mind to them, I believe some of the words he used were: “whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right” and “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. In fact, I believe his lessons, his story, and his lecture are bigger than “us” as a gender or race or ethnicity. They are his transcendence of these things.

His lessons caught my attention in several ways – I particularly enjoyed his advice to his daughter about her future romances and his comments regarding his experience with medical staff, as these pertain more to me and my life than the computer-science & statistical information, which may as well be in another language. His clichés are tried and true and he spins them wonderfully well in the context of his own life so that they are universally applicable.
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