Each year at a series known as The Last Lecture, a Carnegie Mellon University faculty member is asked to deliver what would hypothetically be a final speech to their students before dying. It is a wonderful tradition in which both speaker and listeners take a moment to reflect upon what matters most in this life. In September 2007, the speaker, 47-year-old computer science professor and father of three, Randy Pausch, didn’t have to imagine that he was confronting his imminent demise because, in fact, he was. Pausch had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and, at the time of his Last Lecture, had only been given three to six months to live. Pausch’s speech, entitled “Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” was every bit as upbeat and inspirational as the man himself. Rather than focusing on dying, it was a speech about living, about achieving one’s dreams and enabling the dreams of others, about truly living each day as though it were your last.
I read this book because it has been recommended to me various times throughout my years as a high school student.
I continued to read the book because I couldn’t possibly put it down because I was so intrigued to know what this very wise man had to say.
I would give this book 5 stars and name it one of my very favorite books I have ever read.
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Review by Kaitlin, high school graduate