The Last Lecture

I went to my book club meeting last night and we had a really good time. The book was "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch and what a great book! It was written by a man who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and only had three to six months to live. Here is the description from the website, thelastlecture.com:

On September 18, 2007, computer science professor Randy Pausch stepped in front of an audience of 400 people at Carnegie Mellon University to deliver a last lecture called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” With slides of his CT scans beaming out to the audience, Randy told his audience about the cancer that is devouring his pancreas and that will claim his life in a matter of months. On the stage that day, Randy was youthful, energetic, handsome, often cheerfully, darkly funny. He seemed invincible. But this was a brief moment, as he himself acknowledged.

Randy’s lecture has become a phenomenon, as has the book he wrote based on the same principles, celebrating the dreams we all strive to make realities. Sadly, Randy lost his battle to pancreatic cancer on July 25th, 2008, but his legacy will continue to inspire us all, for generations to come.

I absolutely loved the book and I will be watching The Last Lecture tonight. If you ever get a chance, you need to read this book. His story was very uplifting, inspiring and thought provoking. There were parts where I was laughing out loud and others where I was sobbing uncontrollably. It made me ask the question "Have I achieved all my childhood dreams? And am I helping others to achieve theirs?".