Facing a terminal illness - Three Life Lessons from Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch is the author or co-author of five books and over 70 articles, holds a B.S and PhD. in computer science, has worked closely with the Walt Disney Imagineers (and turned down a job there) and is the founder of the Alice software project among other accomplishments. This is a man I can look at and say “He’s living his life to the fullest.”

 
Three Life Lessons -

• He worked hard his whole life. No one gave him his college degrees. No one handed him a stack of books already written for him to publish. For every accomplishment he has achieved, I try to imagine the sheer number of hours he poured into his goals.
• Attitude. Here is a man staring the ticking clock right in the face and refusing to back down. I can’t imagine how his family feels but I know how I would feel if I were a part of it. I would be proud. Proud of the man who can focus on the positive. A man who is still clearly living life to the fullest despite news that would send many people into the depths of depression or the solitude of a less public presence.
•  Dr. Pausch’s focus on others. With limited time he is still touching as many  people as he can and spreading a message of dreams and hope. On March 13, 2008 Dr. Pausch testified in front of the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies ^[6] to raise more federal funding for pancreatic cancer. The week prior to testifying,  he was hospitalized for needle aspiration of pleural effusion in his right lung. This is clearly a man who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘no.’

As much as I admire this man and like the video, I couldn’t watch it all in one sitting so I stopped in the middle and finished watching it the next day. It was worth it.