The Last Lecture Randy Pausch Analysis

Randy Pausch, an American professor at Carnegie Mellon University who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, gave an inspiring last lecture full of life lessons and ways to look at life in a positive way with just months left to live. Randy knew he was going to die, but he also knew that he had a message that many people needed to hear; he changed lives just before his ended. The concept that people are more important than objects is used constantly throughout the book, from winning the parent lottery to pouring a can of soda in the backseat of his brand new car. Pausch understood that material things don't make you happy or successful, people do. Before Pausch had a family of his own, his parents were the most important people in his life. They taught him countless life lessons, some of which he mentioned in his book, they provided for him, and they encouraged him to follow his dreams. Two of the most important lessons …show more content…
In The Last Lecture, Pausch writes, “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand” (17). You can’t always change the things that happen to you in life, but you can always change how you react and how that change affects you. We cannot waste our lives thinking about how little time we have left, rather we must make the most of it. If I spent my time worrying about how people think my teeth look or whether or not they are going to fall out when I eat, I would never go out in public. Although I don’t love my teeth, I have learned to look on the brighter side of things. I stopped caring what everyone thought of them or how I looked without them because my life could be so much worse. If my parents had argued over the cost of my bills and who was paying, as well as bought everything that they wanted, they would not have been able to pay for the $2000 teeth I wear every day, and I would be walking around with a gaping hole in my